2nd Mar 2016 09:52
LONDON (Alliance News) - Intertek Group PLC on Wednesday booked a big impairment charge in its 2015 results related to the weakness of the oil and gas industry, causing the testing, inspection and certification services company to swing to a significant loss.
FTSE 100-listed Intertek said its pretax loss for the year to the end of December was GBP307.7 million, swung from a GBP252.2 million profit a year earlier. The loss was driven by a GBP577.0 million non-cash impairment charge Intertek booked on past acquisitions as a result of the continued difficulties facing its oil and gas-related businesses.
Revenue for the group rose to GBP2.17 billion from GBP2.09 billion and, stripping out the impairment charge, underlying pretax profit rose to GBP319.2 million from GBP300.2 million.
Intertek said it will pay a final dividend of 35.3 pence per share, up from 33.1p in 2014, taking its total dividend for 2015 up to 52.3p from 49.1p.
Intertek's other divisions performed well, with good growth in its consumer division and margin growth in its commodities and chemicals businesses, but the industry and assurance division took a hit from slowing sales to oil and gas customers.
"We operate in an industry with attractive structural growth prospects and looking forward we will continue to benefit from increased consumer demand for higher quality and more sustainable products, expanding regulations, technological innovations, more complex supply chains, global trade flows and the increased focus of corporations on risk management," said Intertek Chief Executive Andre Lacroix.
"Intertek is well positioned to take advantage of these attractive growth opportunities. We have a global network of state of the art facilities, a powerful portfolio with leading positions, a wide range of quality assurance solutions, a passionate and entrepreneurial culture and a high margin and strongly cash generative earnings model," Lacroix added.
The stock was down 4.0% at 2,883.00 pence Wednesday morning, the biggest FTSE 100 faller.
Analysts said Intertek Group's full-year results were in-line or above estimates, but noted the company's large impairment charge related to its oil and gas business.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Intertek Group