Intertek Group PLC (LON:ITRK) shares rose on Tuesday as the inspection, product testing and certification company said in a trading update that it is on course to meet its revenue growth target for 2018.
The FTSE 100 component said group organic revenue increased 4.5% to £950.9mln at constant rates during the July to October period.
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“We are benefiting from higher demand from our customers for Intertek global Total Quality Assurance solutions in our Products, Trade and Resources sectors,” Intertek said in its statement. “The recent acquisitions in high margin and high growth areas performed well.”
Its Products division posted a 6.1% organic revenue increase to £572.5mln during July through October, with Intertek noting the footwear sector of its softlines business among the contributing drivers of growth.
On the Trade sector level, organic growth of 2.8% resulted in revenue of £215.8mln. The Resources group logged 1.2% organic growth to £162.6mln.
"Intertek is going from strength to strength, making consistent progress on strategy and performance. We are on track to deliver our 2018 targets of good organic revenue growth at constant rates with moderate group margin progression and strong cash conversion,” the company said.
In the 10 months to October, group organic revenue rose 3.8% to £2.29bln at constant rates, while overall revenue increased 4.8% to £2.32bln.
In August, Intertek posted a 1.8% decline in first-half revenue to £1.35bn after a poor performance in the divisions that service the trade and resources industries.
In mid-morning trading, Intertek shares were 1.6% higher at 4,719p.
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