Rentokil Initial PLC (LON:RTO) saw its shares fall on Tuesday after the pest control and hygiene group’s first-half profit and revenue missed forecasts and the firm left its full-year guidance unchanged.
On a statutory basis, the FTSE 100-listed firm’s first-half revenue was down 1.8% to £1.17bn, and pre-tax profit dropped 81.3% to £109.5mln.
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However, the company’s ongoing operating profit was up 13.1% to £134.5mln, and ongoing organic revenue growth of 3.0% was in line with its financial targets, although impacted by continued disruption to its pest control services in Puerto Rico, and an unseasonably cold March and April in North America.
Rentokil continued its "strong" execution of mergers and acquisitions in the period, with 23 businesses acquired with combined annualised revenues of £117.3mln.
The group said its M&A pipeline was "strong" for the second half, as it remained on track to spend £200mln to £250mln for the year, funded by cash held on the balance sheet.
Rentokil’s chief executive officer Andy Ransom: "We continue to see a full pipeline of value-enhancing acquisition opportunities going forward.”
He added: "As a result of our performance in the first half, our guidance for the full year is unchanged."
The group hiked its interim dividend by 15% to 1.311p per share.
In early trading, Rentokil shares were down 3.9% at 329.70p.