SGS delivered a solid financial performance in H12019 as its total revenue grew by 3.9 per cent to CHF3.3 bn ($3.35 bn). The company achieved good organic growth of 3.5 per cent across its business portfolio with most business lines delivering mid-single-digit growth. The adjusted operating income reached CHF489 mn versus CHF464 mn in prior year.
A number of strategic milestones were achieved by the SGS group in H12019. The group disposed of Petroleum Services Corporation (PSC), a provider of downstream plant and terminal operations, and acquired Maine Pointe LLC, a business process optimisation consulting firm, both based in the US. The development of cyber security laboratories and centres of excellence in Madrid and Graz, as well as a partnership with Graz University in H1, has positioned the organisation as a key player of the rapidly growing nascent TIC activity driven by increasing regulations. It also provides a natural overlap with the group’s current TIC services, said the company in a media statement.
The group will undertake structural optimisation measures to streamline the business across the global network in H22019. The cost of CHF75 mn should deliver annualised savings by 2020 that will exceed this initial investment.
The SGS group remains committed to deliver mid-single-digit organic growth, accelerate mergers and acquisitions and remain disciplined on returns, achieve an adjusted operating income margin of above 17 per cent by end of H22019 supported by network optimisation, ensure strong cash conversion, maintain best-in-class return on invested capital, maintain the dividend or grow it in line with the improvement in adjusted net earnings. SGS is the world’s leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company.
