Intertek Group PLC on Tuesday reported a slightly higher profit for 2022 and noted confidence for 2023 with China opening up at the start of the year.

The London-based quality assurance service said pretax profit in 2022 grew 1.5% to £419.8 million from £413.4 million in 2021. This was 6.1% below Shore Capital analyst expectations from January of £447 million.

The company noted that it did not have ‘unusually high government subsidies’ in 2022 as it had in 2021, and was also impacted by inflation in North America, Europa and Australia. On top of this, Covid disruptions in China left their mark.

Revenue grew 15% to £3.19 billion from £2.79 billion, and largely in line with Shore Capital analysts’ expectations of £3.18 billion.

Intertek maintained a full year dividend of 105.8 pence per share.

The company for 2023 expects mid-single digit like-for-like revenue growth, with margin progression and ‘strong’ free cash flow.

It added: ‘We are entering 2023 with confidence given the re-opening of China, which has been operating with normal staffing levels since the beginning of the year, the increased demand for our Assurance, Testing, Inspection & Certification solutions, the strengths of our portfolio, our strong pricing power, our productivity and cost initiatives as well as our cash flow discipline.’

Intertek shares are down 2.5% to 4,265.00 pence each on Tuesday morning in London.

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