Miners help Intertek post higher profits
BRITISH testing firm Intertek posted a 14 per cent rise in first-half profit yesterday, as a booming mining industry in Asia and the Pacific rim drove strong growth in its commodities division.
Intertek, which tests products from toys and clothes to oil and renewable technology, said its adjusted pre-tax profit grew to £110.6m on revenues up 17 per cent at £763.1m in the six months to the end of June.
The group said it recorded revenue growth across all of its markets, with sales at its commodities, commercial and electrical divisions helping offset a slowdown at its key consumer unit, which it said would improve in the second half.
Sales at its commodities unit, which provides laboratory testing and technical services to the world’s energy, petroleum, chemical and mining industries, grew 12.2 per cent at constant exchange rates to £251.2m.
Shares in the group, which raised its interim dividend by 15 per cent, closed up 3.9 per cent yesterday as the highest riser in the FTSE 100.
“A solid set of results, meeting expectations with structural growth drivers intact and some of the headwinds in the first half likely to reduce into the second half to offset tougher comparatives,” Goldman Sachs analyst John Woodman said.