Exova eyes organic growth, sells FWP business

"Given the strong pipeline, we expect our mergers and acquisitions programme to contribute significantly to overall growth," the materials-testing company said.

The FWP business sale -- to Eurofins Scientific for about £18 million cash -- allowed Exova to dedicate significantly more financial and management resource to growing in sectors where it could build on its market-leading positions.

These were in the technically demanding services such as Fire, Transportation, Aerospace, Industrials and Infrastructure related testing.

In a trading statement covering the four months to 30 April, Exova added that its revenue was up 12.7% at constant currency rates and up 15.4% at actual exchange rates.

It saw good organic growth in Aerospace and very strong growth in its Product & Certification cluster. "As expected, we have seen a further contraction in our Oil & Gas and Industrials cluster and some reduction in Health Sciences."

In the Americas, Exova saw solid organic growth in Aerospace, good growth in Health Sciences and a particularly high level of activity in Transportation, which was expected to return to more normal levels. The company's Oil & Gas and Industrials cluster had experienced similar headwinds to Europe.

In Rest of World, very strong organic growth had continued in the Middle East with the ramp-up of infrastructure projects. This was partially offset by the anticipated contraction in Oil & Gas and Industrials.

"We have continued to take action to mitigate the impact on margin in Oil & Gas and Industrials," Exova said in a statement.