Intertek has posted a 4.5% jump in revenue to £1.67bn in its opening half results.

The company, which provides assurance, testing, inspection, and certification services, also announced an adjusted operating profit of £276.3m, which was up by 9.8% on last year at constant currency and 4.2% at actual rates.

In the group’s H1 period, Intertek also increased its operating margin by 90 basis points to 14.8%, as it also revealed that its recent acquisitions in attractive growth and margin segments were “performing well”.

As a result, the group’s interim dividend per share has risen to 57.3p, up 6.3% from 53.9p at the same point last year.

CEO, André Lacroix, said: “I would like to recognise all my colleagues for having delivered a strong performance in the first half of the year in customer service, revenue growth management, margin accretion, earnings growth, cash generation and ROIC progression. Once again, this demonstrates the company's ability to improve its performance on a sustainable basis and consistently, across all our key financial metrics.”

The company also reported that it remains “on track” to deliver on its medium term targets of mid-single digit like-for-like revenue growth, and to reach an 18.5% margin.

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