Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Intertek May 2025 Trading Update. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If you wish to ask a question, we ask that you please use the raise hand function at the bottom of your Zoom screen. If you've dialed in, please select star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute. Instructions will also follow at the time of the Q&A. I would like to remind all participants that this call is being recorded. Questions will follow after the presentation. I will now hand over to André Lacroix, Chief Executive Officer, to start the presentation.
Good morning to you all, and thanks for joining us on our call. I have with me Colm Deasy, our CFO, and Danis Moreau, our VP of Investor Relations. There are essentially three take-aways from our call today. We had a good start to the year, with a strong performance in our high-emerging divisions, and we've delivered a like-for-like revenue growth of 4.5% at constant currency. Profit conversion in the period was robust. We benefited from divisional mix, good operating leverage, and, of course, productivity improvements. We remain very focused on daily cash conversion, and we delivered a strong free cash flow. Importantly, we are well positioned to deliver a robust performance in 2025 with mid-single-digit like-for-like revenue growth at constant currency, margin progression, and, of course, a strong cash conversion.
I want to start our call today answering the top three questions that we get during our meetings with shareholders. The first question we get is, what is the expected impact of the current tariff discussions for Intertek in the short and medium term? Given our mission-critical role in the value chain of our clients, our highly diversified revenue streams, and importantly, the fact that our testing volume in Consumer Products is linked to the number of product types we test for multiple export destinations and not the quantity of product manufactured, we continue to expect our Consumer Products division to deliver mid-single-digit like-for-like revenue growth at constant currency in 2025. Moving forward, and importantly, the outcome of the current discussions on tariff will create additional ATIC growth opportunities for Intertek. Supply chains never stand still in our world.
As you know, we operate a capital-light business model, and we can react very fast when our clients want to make new investments in their supply chains around the world. What really matters for us is, first, the number of SKUs in the global market that need to be tested and certified, and second, the number of factories and tier one, two, and three suppliers that we need to audit and inspect. The new sourcing strategy of our clients will make the ATIC market larger for Intertek, with new trade routes to assure, an increase in the number of products to test and certify, and, of course, more factories to audit and inspect.
That's why, as you might have seen, we've just launched, a few weeks ago, SupplyTek, a new suite of consulting, training, and assurance solutions to help our clients navigate the change they plan to make in their sourcing strategies and, of course, go to market fast with total peace of mind. The second question we get is, what is the resilience of our earnings models in the event that we were to see an economic slowdown? Our earnings model is extremely resilient for three main reasons. First and foremost, we are mission-critical to keeping the supply chains of our clients safe every single day around the world. Without Intertek, consumers and corporations cannot operate safely. Second, our revenue streams are highly diversified. We offer a comprehensive suite of ATIC solutions, in five divisions, covering more than 15 industries, working for more than 400,000 customers in more than 100 countries.
Last but not least, we have strong and long-term relationships with our clients, and our clients continue to increase their investments on risk-based quality assurance to operate with higher standards on quality, safety, and sustainability. That mega-trend makes our Risk-based Quality Assurance growth drivers for each of our four ATIC solutions very resilient. Let me explain you why. Assurance, as you know, is about 21% of the Group revenue, and it's all about assessing risks in our clients' value chain through an audit of operating procedures, operating systems, and skills. Risk mitigation is an area where corporations cannot compromise, and certainly in areas where companies need to do much more given the increased expectations of all stakeholders in society. Testing is our largest solution, representing 46% of our revenue.
As I just explained, our level of testing activities doesn't really depend on the volume manufactured, but instead on the number of SKUs being manufactured in the given country for multiple export destinations. Without proper testing, products cannot go to market. The important growth drivers for us in consumer products is that consumers want more choices and a higher quality choice. That means more SKUs or product types to test and more tests per SKU. Inspection is the second largest solution at Intertek, about 25% of our revenue. We provide inspection for our clients in both their manufacturing and trading operations. Without independent inspections, our clients' operations will face significant safety, productivity, and quality challenges, and they cannot trade. Certification is about 8% of revenue. We provide a rigorous assessment of the quality, safety, and sustainability performance of products of our clients based on third-party regulatory standards.
Regulatory compliance is a must, and the important trend here is that the regulation will continue to raise quality, safety, and sustainability standards. We know that so well. The third question we are getting: have you changed your capital allocation policy with a recurring share buyback? Disciplined capital allocation is a key element on how we delivered sustainable growth and value for Intertek. We are not changing our capital allocation policy. We have four priorities. First is to invest in organic growth with a Capex investment of circa 4%-5% of revenue a year. The second is to reward our shareholders with a circa 65% dividend pay-out ratio. Third, we invest strategically and selectively in M&A, targeting high growth and high margin sectors.
Fourth, we want to do all of that, maintaining an efficient balance sheet with the flexibility to invest in growth while operating with an average target of 1.3-1.8 Net Debt to EBITDA. You might recall in May 2023, when we announced our triple-A differentiated strategy for growth, that we recognized that given our strong earnings model and the expected faster growth moving forward, we might return the excess capital to shareholders. Indeed, we have seen an acceleration of our performance with our triple-A strategy, having delivered double-digit EPS growth for two consecutive years in 2023 and 2024. Our high-quality cash compounded earnings model is getting stronger every single year, and that gives us the opportunity to further reward our shareholders while still investing organically and looking for value-accretive M&A opportunities.
Given the strengths of our earnings models, our performance track record, our confidence in future growth opportunities, and the current level of leverage, that's why we announced in March an initial GBP 350 million share buyback program to be completed during the current financial year. In different terms, or in simple terms, I should say, we have decided to return the cash we do not need to run the company for growth, and this is in line with our disciplined capital allocation policy. Let me turn now briefly to trading in the last four months. We have benefited from a demand increase for ATIC solutions across our divisions and geographies, enabling us to deliver 4.5% like-for-like revenue growth at the group level, and that compares to 7% last year. The base last year was quite demanding for us in these first four months of the year.
Our Consumer Products division delivered like-for-like revenue growth of 7.8%. We're extremely pleased with the double-digit like-for-like performance in soft lines after a very strong year last year, high single-digit like-for-like in GTS, while hard lines and electrical delivered, as expected, mid-single-digit like-for-like revenue growth. We've invested over the years in Corporate Assurance, and I'm delighted that our Corporate Assurance division delivered like-for-like revenue growth of 8.9% with double-digit performance in Business Assurance after very, very, very strong years in the last four or five years. Of course, you've seen the low single-digit like-for-like performance in our Consulting Assurance business. Our Health and Safety division delivered a like-for-like revenue of 3.5%. That was driven by double-digit like-for-like performance in Food after a very strong year last year, mid-single-digit like-for-like performance in Agri after a very good year last year.
Of course, we saw a slight low single-digit like-for-like performance in CMP due to a baseline effect. We had very strong performance in the first six months last year. Our Industry and Infrastructure division delivered like-for-like revenue growth of 2.7%, driven by mid-single-digit like-for-like performance in our Industry Services and Mineral businesses and a stable like-for-like performance in Building and Construction. Our World of Energy division delivered a stable like-for-like revenue growth with a low single-digit like-for-like performance in TT, a low single-digit negative like-for-like performance in Caleb Brett due to a demanding base. You will recall we drove 10% like-for-like in our World of Energy division last year in the first four months of the year, and a slowdown of trading activities in North America. Our CA business, which has performed extremely well last year, had the baseline effect in the first four months of the year.
Overall, we had a good start to 2025, and let's now discuss the performance on a year-to-date basis at the group level. The revenue for the four months to the end of April grew by 4.6% at constant currency and 1.2% at actual rate. Like-for-like, as I just talked about, was up by 4.5% at constant currency. That was broad-based, and we benefited from both volume and pricing. The Base Met Labs acquisition we made in 2024 to scale up our portfolio in attractive growth and margin sectors is performing well. Margin progression was robust. We benefited from divisional mix, operating leverage, and productivity improvements. We delivered a strong free cash flow and continue to operate, as you know, with a robust balance sheet. We continue to invest in organic and inorganic growth opportunities.
We recently announced the acquisition of Tesis in Brazil, expanding our building product testing activities in one of the fastest growing markets in the world. We continue to invest organically in growth with capacity expansion in existing laboratories, new laboratory openings, investment in technology, and of course, in technology-based innovation. Our ROIC was strong with good progress year- on -year, and the share buyback program that we started in March is progressing well, and we have already bought 1.6 million shares for a total of GBP 75.3 million. Turning now to our financial guidance for the full year of 2025, we continue to expect that the group will deliver mid-single-digit like-for-like revenue growth at constant currency.
In terms of businesses, we expect to deliver high single-digit like-for-like revenue growth in Corporate Assurance, mid-single-digit like-for-like revenue growth in Consumer Products, Health and Safety, and Industry and Infrastructure, and low single-digit revenue growth in the World of Energy. We are targeting margin progression. Our disciplined cash approach will remain in place, and we expect to deliver a strong free cash flow. We'll invest in growth with a CapEx of GBP 135 million-GBP 145 million, and we expect our financial net debt to be in the range of GBP 470 million-GBP 520 million pre-buyback and before any material movement due to M&A or FX. A quick update for your models on currency. The average selling rate in the last three months applies to the full year results of 2024, which would reduce our full year revenue and earnings respectively by 250 basis points and 350 basis points.
The value growth opportunities ahead for all of us at Intertek are significant. Our industry has always benefited from attractive growth drivers, and now more than ever, everyone wants to build an ever better world, which means that corporations will continue to invest more in quality, safety, and sustainability, which will accelerate the demand for industry-leading ATIC solutions. We believe that the outcome of the current discussion on tariffs will create additional growth opportunities for Intertek, as these will create new global trade routes to assure more products to test and certify, and more factories to audit and inspect.
All of us at Intertek are super energized about the opportunities ahead, and we are highly focused on executing our triple-A growth strategy and delivering the corporate target consistently every year that you know so well of mid-single-digit like-for-like revenue growth, margin progression targeting 18.5% over time, strong cash, disciplined investment in organic and inorganic growth to deliver a superior return on invested capital. Let me summarize the highlights of our trading statement today before taking your questions. Trading in the first four months was good with 4.5% like-for-like revenue growth at constant currency, and we benefited from strong performance in our high margin division. Our positive divisional mix effect, good operating leverage, and productive improvements drove a robust margin progression, while our disciplined cash conversion delivered a strong free cash flow.
We are on track to deliver a robust performance in 2025, and as I just said, the value growth opportunities ahead are significant given the increased focus of our clients on risk-based quality assurance and the expected expansion of the supply chains of our clients. Thanks for joining our call today. We'll now answer any questions you might have.
We will now start the Q&A. If you are dialed into the call and wish to ask a question, please use the raise hand function at the bottom of your screen. We'll take our first question from Rory McKenzie with UBS. Please go ahead and ask your question.
Good morning, André. It's Rory here.
Morning.
I know you already made the opening remarks on tariff impacts, but my first question is about the current performance in consumer products.
Can you just be clear as to whether you've seen any material change in that revenue trend or client activity level through this period, maybe especially since the 2nd of April? I know growth has been strong at 9% in H2 last year and nearly 8% year to date, but clearly we've all seen volatile trade patterns over this time period. Are you, to be explicit, are you concerned that there's any weakness coming ahead? Secondly, on supply chain solutions, can you just talk about where SupplyTek fits into the current offering, and can you give us any detail about your kind of total exposure and size here following all the investments you've made? Thank you.
Great. I assume the second question was about consumer products, right?
I'd say it was SupplyTek.
On the second question, on the weakness in the rest of the year, are you talking about consumer products or total growth?
Oh, yeah, yeah. Sorry. That was consumer products, yes.
Okay. Look, thanks, Rory, for asking the questions. Look, I can be very, very clear on the first question is very simple to answer. It does not matter if you look at the group level or if you look at consumer products, the April performance was no different than Q1. All right? This is pretty clear. This is the resilience of our business model as I just explained, right? On the second question for the rest of the year, no, we are not expecting our consumer products to weaken in terms of performance. We are just mindful that last year we had a very, very, very strong H2.
I mean, as you know, Consumer Products in H2 last year was double-digit, 9.9%. If you take our performance in the first four months of the year and you project on mid-single digit, you will see that H2 will be a pretty decent performance, right? We are not expecting any issue at all, right? As far as SupplyTek is concerned, look, helping our clients go to market, Rory, is something that we have been investing in for many, many, many, many years, right? You might recall when we made the acquisition of SAI that we bought a business called SAI Standards, which is now called Inform. This is a fabulous business. It is a SaaS-based business, as you know, high margin, lots of recurring revenues, capital light, very strong RIC.
When I saw the performance of this business and the customer reactions to what we offer and the expectations moving forward, I really started working with the team on global market access, right? We created a solution that you might not have seen in our star division called Electrical, called Access, where it is a digital platform where any electrical manufacturer around the world can get access with Intertek to the various technical specifications that are required around the world to go to market. We also have a very strong global market access set of solutions in our hardline and softline businesses. Of course, we know that companies over the years have been basically downsizing their local operations, centralizing marketing, sales, and sourcing and legal.
One of the key issues that corporations have around the world, they have lost technical knowledge on what's required in the local market to perform. Essentially, SupplyTek is an opportunity we've been working for quite a long time, and the timing of the announcement was just right for us at the time where, of course, tariff will make what I was just talking about even more complicated for companies, right? Essentially, this is scaling up a set of solutions that we have in selected business lines and making sure that we offer these solutions to all of our clients that are basically involved in thinking their supply sourcing strategy for the future, given the change expected in the tariff, right? SupplyTek is basically divided in three types of solutions: consulting, training, and assurance.
Because companies have lost technical knowledge, they need a lot of guidance and help on how to go to market. Because of that, they not only need the help with our knowledge, but also we need to train their people, and of course, they need the independent assurance solutions. Essentially, SupplyTek is available in all of our business diagnostic divisions, assurance, corporate assurance, Inform, but also our main product business lines: hardline, softlines, electrical, food, building products. It's a very, very, very exciting opportunity. Obviously, the timing of the launch was pitch perfect because this is when most corporations are starting to think about it, and that's what I would say for now.
Okay. Thank you, André.
Our next question comes from Suhasini Varanasi from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead and ask your question.
Good morning, André. How are you?
Hey, morning. I'm good, thank you.
Morning. Great.
Just a couple of questions from me, please. I think you've spoken of robust margin expansion in the first four months of the year. In consumer, for example, I think you reached almost 29% EBIT margin in 2019. Given the kind of growth that you've seen in the division this year, do you think you can exceed that margin this year? Maybe just a general comment on how you see group margins for the first half and full year, including the FX drag that you see at the moment. Thank you.
Yeah. Of course, as you know, we don't give margin guidance by division. Nor do we give margin guidance for the half year.
Having said all of that, I'm very pleased with the margin performance of the group in the first four months of the year because essentially, you got really good margin progression on both consumer products and Corporate Assurance, as well as Health and Safety. In addition to that, you got the mix effect, right? We are doing very, very well. As you know, for us, there is no ceiling, right? We believe that we have high-quality earnings models, and if you do the right thing in terms of volume price mix, if you are basically disciplined in terms of variable cost and you never stop relooking at your fixed cost and you get good growth with the operating leverage, you should be able to get margin equity revenue growth every single year. Yeah, I mean, we expect the group to continue to perform.
As you know, we've given a new target to the organization, 18.5%, which we shared with our shareholders, and that's what we are going for. We've delivered the previous target of 17.5%. We're now going beyond. The group is in a good place. As you know, we are very, very disciplined when it comes to quality revenue growth, volume price mix, margin management, cash management, and disciplined investment. That's what makes Intertek such a fantastic company, right?
Maybe just to put the question another way, I think current consensus is probably looking for 17.7% or 17.8% EBIT margin this year. Are you comfortable with that at the moment?
You never stop, right, asking the questions that I cannot answer. As I said to you several times, we do not give margin guidance. We are confident, right, that we are in a good place.
Yeah, understood. Thank you.
Thanks for trying, though.
Our next question comes from Will Curtlis from Bernstein. Please unmute your line by pressing star six and ask a question.
Hi there, morning.
Morning.
I've got two questions, please. Firstly, I just wonder if you talk about the moving parts in Caleb Brett. So is that purely market volumes there, or is there anything happening in terms of market share or pricing? Just a bit more around that would be helpful, thanks. Secondly, just to go back to margin, just a quick clarification point. I seem to remember that robust had a meaning maybe around sort of could be as much as 50- 60 basis points in margin terms. I just wondered if that sort of lexicon still stands. Thanks.
It's a good question. Honestly speaking, I never recall us giving a lexicon on adjectives for margin.
I remember we had a well-known lexicon for like-for-like, and of course, we moved away from that to be clearer. Robust is more than 30 basis points indeed. Yeah, I hope it answers your question. Look, your question on Caleb Brett is a very well-pointed question, right? Of course, we all remember that we had a fantastic performance for Caleb Brett last year, which obviously drove a very, very commendable performance for the World of Energy. We'll remember the 8% like-for-like growth for the year, the 9.4% in April year-to-date last year, and 8.3% in H1. Caleb Brett, of course, did double-digit in the first four months of the year. You will recall all that. The base is very, very demanding. The situation is very simple to understand. As you know, there are concerns in the United States on the short-term outlook of the economy.
When you are in the oil and gas industry, there is quite a lot of inventory in the system, right? What we have seen is basically traders and refiners getting their stock down and not obviously increasing the production, the refining, and therefore the trading of their crude and refined products in the market. That is essentially what is happening outside of the Americas. Caleb Brett continues to do very, very well. It is a short-term reaction in terms of slowdown in production, refining, and trading in the North American market. By the way, the data is public and available, and you can see that. I can tell you that we are not seeing a reduction in the Caleb Brett volume in line with what is happening in the market, right? We are doing much better than that. That is it.
There is nothing more to say about it. We have a fabulous business with Caleb Brett in the United States, and the team is doing a great job. Important question. Thanks for asking.
Thanks.
Our next question comes from Allen Wells with Jefferies. Please go ahead and ask your question.
Hey, good morning, André. Good morning, Colm. Just a couple for me, please. I just wanted to—good morning. Just to clarify, when you were talking about—I was just thinking about exit rates, like April versus February, March, and the impact, I guess, post-Liberation Day in the U.S., I think you suggested that the consumer, there was not much change in the price. Maybe just a general comment around the group as a whole and specifically, I guess, around the Caleb Brett business in North America, if you had seen some slowing into the end of the quarter. That is my first question.
And secondly, could you just make some comments on just what you can on regional growth, like Asia versus the U.S. versus Europe, if there are any meaningful differences there? Thank you.
Yeah. Look, I mean, thanks for clarifying. As I said to Rory a few minutes ago, in terms of organic growth performance, right, there was no difference between Q1 and April at the consumer product level, but also at the group level, right? It is the same in the world of energy. The down, if you want, trading that I was talking about in the world of energy for Caleb Brett in North America was not linked to Liberation Day. Essentially, people went into the year with some concerns about the policy changes and the impact that these policy changes would have on the economy in the United States. That is something that has happened throughout Q1, right?
It is not linked to Liberation Day. It was obviously clear anticipations from the world energy market. Okay.
Thank you. Thank you. Sorry.
Our next question comes from Sylvia Barker with JP Morgan. Please unmute your line and ask your question.
Thank you. Hi, morning, everyone.
Morning.
A couple from me as well, please. First, on consumer, so clearly very strong growth. I suppose that feeds into your comments that you are gaining share possibly. Can you maybe just talk a little bit about how that works in practice? Obviously, it is quite fragmented by kind of specific product line. Contracts can be quite long-term. Could you maybe just talk about how you might be winning share and who from in terms of the types of players?
Then secondly, on Caleb Brett, when you look at things like inventory or refinery kind of demand, how do you think about how that plays out for the rest of the year? How quickly can that turn? Do you think that you might see a quick kind of return to growth, or how quickly is that changing, especially in North America? Thank you.
Yeah. I mean, let's start with the second question since we were just on Caleb Brett on the previous question. Look, the supply-demand equilibrium in the world of energy is real-time, right? It is a function of many things, including the oil price, right? There is still inventory to trade from. There will be a point where inventory will plateau at an acceptable level. Assuming the economy continues to do well in the United States, demand will drive additional production, refining, and trading activities, right?
My team on the ground view is that the major operators in the world of energy market, North America, have been careful given where the oil price is and what the diagnosis of the short-term U.S. economy was. As you know, the summer is a big season for mobility and air conditioning and electricity in the United States. We should see it in H2, I guess. We'll know better around, I would say, July, August, September. The data is available real-time, right? The inventory data is published every week, right, if you're interested in it. It is a real-time supply and demand market, as you know. I'm not worried, right, because we have a good business there, very well-run, and the team is doing a good job. Our clients are delighted with our customer service.
There are times like this where people do not trade, right? The question on market share, as we have talked previously on this call, is very difficult in our industry to measure market share. We do have our own intelligence. Essentially, the way we look at market share is at the global level when you have global accounts, but also at the local level where you have basically the activities that are being done by the vendors, right? Look, I do not want to make a general statement across all businesses, but look, the team is performing very, very well. We have won quite a few new accounts in soft lines and hard lines, and we continue to do so in electrical and GTS. Clearly, the run rate is ahead in my view of where the industry is, right? The implied benefit of it is that you are right.
We must be getting market share. In our industry, you cannot quantify it, unfortunately, right? That is our own intelligence, right? I am really, really pleased with the work the team is doing. Really, if you look at soft lines, right, this is an incredible performance, right, having double-digit like-for-like revenue growth. We had a double-digit performance last year, right? It is not like we are comparing ourselves to a very weak base, right? That is definitely ahead of the industry.
Okay. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Carl Raynsford from Berenberg. Please unmute your line and ask your question.
Hey, morning, André.
Morning.
Just a follow-up, sorry, on Caleb Brett again. I know you said it is mainly North America, but I saw news this morning. The OPEC members are discussing a material production increase ahead of their meeting on June 1st.
I'm just wondering how impactful that could be in the second half of the year if that were to be agreed, if at all. I know you're sort of saying it's more destocking, but yeah, just wondering if that would be impactful. Second question on business assurance. Perhaps you could break this out a little bit further if that's possible. There's obviously a lot of ISO-related auditing work, supply chain audits, and sort of sustainability quasi-consulting sort of work. I was hoping maybe you could give us a more level of granularity of that growth in that segment, please. If all parts are growing double digits or if there's a specific part of business assurance that's really the driving force. Lastly, your U.S.-based competitor put out some very good sort of consumer product testing results a couple of weeks ago.
So I'm just wondering, relative to soft lines, hard lines, and just purely testing, how the certification of sort of HVAC medical devices, purely the certification side, is growing versus the lab testing side, if that makes sense. Thank you.
All right. Let me just try to take these questions one at a time. Look, the global economy is in good shape, right? You know that OPEC had been quite conservative in terms of letting the members increase their production because they wanted to obviously make sure there was a good equilibrium between supply and demand for obviously pricing considerations, right? To me, the fact that they are considering increasing their quotas is a good sign in the strength of the global economy, which, of course, we agree. The OPEC members, right, are competing, if you want, with the United States in the global market, right?
The U.S. has become a major export actor in the business, right? I do not think you should see any link between what they are doing and what I am saying about the U.S. market because I was just talking about the domestic U.S. market, right? As I said, what we have seen is, I would say, more an anticipation of what people expect the demand to be than necessarily what the demand will be for the rest of the year, as I was just explaining to Sylvia, right? To me, the fact that they are willing to increase the quotas confirms that the global economy is in good shape. I do not expect any consequences for the domestic trading activities in the United States because the United States is an export actor now, right?
As far as BA is concerned, as we talked about at the capital market event, we have a fantastic corporate assurance business. We are obviously present in the right ISO segments around the world. We are super strong in supply chain risk management with our digital supply chain tool called Inlight. We are, of course, very, very, very involved in the industry-agnostic supply management solutions, including CSR, which is checking the working standards around the world. As you said, we are also highly involved in sustainability. We have, of course, our people assurance business. Lastly, not to forget Assuris, which is our consulting business. If you take Assuris out, I think the double-digit performance we just talked about was really broad-based, right? I mean, we believe in the assurance sector, as you know. That is why we have repositioned the company as ATIC many, many years ago.
Corporations need to invest in risk identifications. That is what assurance is all about. No, the business is in good shape. Your question on certifications, certifications really applies for us largely, right, in our electrical business. The growth rate that I talked about on electrical is pretty much the same on certification and testing. There is a link between the two, right? Because we test when we certify. That is the trend, right? We are in a good place. Our electrical business, because I know which competitor you are referring to, is a fabulous business. The compounding effect of growth year after year has made this business super, super exciting. We are extremely, extremely well-positioned. I might mention the point that in 2020, electrical did not go down in terms of volume, right? This is a fabulous business.
The electrification of society is a big trend. As we talked about at the capital market event, Sunny made very, very comprehensive presentations. We are involved in all segments of the electrification of society. I am really, really pleased with the performance of the business. The compounding effect of this growth year after year is making the margin profile of electrical very, very, very exciting.
Very helpful, André. Thank you very much.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, we ask that you please use the raise hand function at the bottom of your Zoom screen. If you have dialed in, please select star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute. We will take our next question from Annelies Vermeulen from Morgan Stanley. Please unmute your line and go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, André.
Hey, morning.
I have two questions, please. Firstly, thank you for all the comments around tariffs and how you see that. I'm just wondering if we think about it more simplistically, your peers have helpfully given us sort of percentage exposure to global trade export-linked revenues relative to more local to local. I understand that you are well-positioned to help your customers in the event that they move their supply chains. If we actually see a slowdown in absolute trade volumes globally, I'm just wondering how much of that would impact your business and how much you think is local to local and perhaps more protected from any slowing of cross-border trade. Secondly, just on I&I, oil and gas versus renewables, could you comment on performance between the two and if you've seen any mix shift in the last few months?
I'm asking that particularly in the context of some of the majors pulling back on their renewables investments and what you're seeing there. Thank you.
Yeah. On what's happening in the world of energy, as you know, we have essentially two businesses, Moody, which is engineering inspection globally that works with energy companies. Traditionally, the business has been very focused on traditional oil and gas, but over the years, we have evolved our offering to make sure we can obviously do the engineering-based inspections in all end markets that matter, right? Wind energy and, of course, power plants and grid and carbon capture and nuclear and, of course, hydrogen. We also have invested, as you know, with CA in the solar panel assurance business. Look, we have not seen anything from our global clients that kind of says, "You know what?
We should expect a slowdown of investment in renewables." Now, I know the companies you're talking about and some of these companies, especially the one that probably you have in mind here based in London, have got their own issues, right? Look, the trend is very clear, right? There are two issues in the world of energy, right? One is supply security, right, with what's happening with the war in Ukraine. Of course, how we decarbonize the society, right? We know that the mix in terms of demand differs by region. We know that Europe is certainly going to get to net zero before anybody else. Some of the emerging economies are relying more on traditional oil and gas to basically fulfill the demand and make sure they've got affordable energy for their consumers, right? For us, the trends remain the same.
We expect our clients to continue to invest in traditional oil and gas production assets and accelerate their investments in renewables to decarbonize. I mean, it is so, well, it is public data, right? The story on net zero is not good. I mean, the carbon emissions increased again in 2024. And the Paris Agreement expects us to plateau in the next few years. I do not think it is going to happen. While the world continues to invest in capacity for the reason I explained in terms of traditional oil and gas, they need to accelerate investments in renewables, right? We are basically very, very, very clear on the structural growth drivers. I am not seeing any change globally. Of course, I am seeing some of the announcement of certain companies like you do. As far as the question on tariff, what exactly is your question?
Because I'm not sure I understand what you really want to know.
My question was, how should we think about your entire portfolio in terms of the exposure to actual cross-border trade? I know you've been very clear around SKUs and yeah.
Got it. Got it. Look, that's a very important question. I just want to make sure that I get it right. My view is the best way to think about your question is to look at our ATIC solutions, right? You will basically see that the only portion of our portfolio that is linked to global trade is essentially the inspection part that we do for our clients in their trading operations, right? It is part of Caleb Brett, part of Agri, and that's it, right, on a global basis.
Okay. Thank you.
You're welcome.
Next question comes from Neil Tyler with Redburn Atlantic.
Please unmute your line by pressing star six and ask your question.
Good morning, André. A couple left for me, please. Just back to Industry and Infrastructure. The questions, you mentioned that you had not heard or seen anything from your clients regarding any sort of changing trajectory of their investment plans. If you want to put it sort of in terms of, I guess, backlog, what sort of distance of visibility would you say you have over that? I guess, would you anticipate, based on historic experience, lower energy prices impacting investment and therefore impacting perhaps the Moody business? A shorter-term question, just there has been quite a lot of mentions of the weather in the U.S. in the first quarter impacting sort of construction activity and the like. I guess that might have had some impact on your business.
If you could sort of touch on that as well, that would be helpful. Thank you.
Yeah, of course. Let me take the question on weather first because I tend to not use the weather to explain trading internally or externally unless it is significant, right? Yes, there were a few cold weeks in North America, as we saw. You will recall from previous meetings we had where I have talked about the number of severe weather events, right? For me, it is when you have major disruptions with hurricane, etc., and so forth. Yes, of course, the winter was a bit tougher this first four months than last year. I would not want you to start quantifying our performance because of a few more days of snow and ice in certain regions of the United States, right?
I think on BNC, because I want to answer the question that is behind your question, on BNC, as we talked about in the past, the year before the elections and the year after the elections, there is always a slowdown in our large project activities. We have three businesses in BNC. We do product certifications, which, of course, continues to do very well. It is all the material that is used to build buildings and offices. We do technical inspection in investments in offices, in retail environments. We do not, as you know, work in residential. These two segments continue to do very well. Where we have seen a slowdown last year, and we are still not seeing an increase of activities, is large projects because, as you know, there are big CapEx commitments. Of course, interest rates were high last year.
People were expecting some change in terms of the incentives from the government. It takes always a bit of time. We expect this to gradually improve in the second half. It is always the pattern we saw in the past during election years in the United States. As far as Industry and Infrastructure, we have very good visibility, Neil, on the backlog of our Moody activities, right? I am not going to give you the percentage because it is obviously commercially sensitive. We have a pretty good idea of what clients are going to do between now and the end of the year. We have not seen any cancellation, right, to your question. We know that in the past, a low oil price had impacted some investments. As I was just talking about, the world is in a very different place, right?
This multi-year of under-investments in oil and gas exploration and renewables have created a supply security issue in traditional oil and gas product because there is not a lot of slack in the system. Of course, an issue in terms of renewable mix because the world is very, very far from its net zero target. The situation is a bit different. As you know, we had seen a reduction of the oil price, not for a few months, but for many, many, many years, right, before 2015. Look, we'll continue to monitor. I'm not worried about the short term. The backlog is strong. I think the situation is different than it was in the past, all right?
That's very helpful. Thank you.
We'll take our last question from Arthur Truslove from Citi. Please go ahead.
Arthur, if you'd like to unmute your line, please press start. You're unmuted. Thank you very much.
Brilliant. Thank you. Thanks very much, André, and appreciate you taking my questions. A couple of them, if I may. The first one is I just wondered if you could talk a little bit more about electrical and connected worlds. Obviously, mid-single-digit growth in the quarter. Obviously, it's been very strong in recent quarters. Are you expecting these sorts of levels of growth, plus minus, to continue as we progress through the year and beyond? Are the comps getting tougher there? Are there particular geographies where this is doing especially well? That's the first question. Second question, just going back to Annelies's question.
I guess if you look at soft lines and hard lines, it's sort of low to mid-teen % of revenue, electrical and connected world, another sort of 15% or so. I guess the question that I had is, what proportion of those revenues are linked to the launch of products that, firstly, are headed from China to the U.S.? Secondly, are headed to the U.S. more broadly? And I guess, thirdly, are headed out of China? Thank you.
Right. Let me go back to your second question. I know what you're after. When a brand produces a jacket, right? Let's just say, I don't know if you wear a jacket today, but let's just say you wear a jacket that's been produced in China by Ralph Lauren, right?
That jacket is manufactured in, let's just say, Shanghai by Ralph Lauren, working with us in terms of quality assurance with a local manufacturing company called a vendor. That jacket is manufactured for multiple export destinations. That's the model, right? That's why I cannot give you a number on how much of my revenue from soft lines, hard lines, electrical is linked to the export of the United States because I know that's the answer that you want, because I cannot give it to you. Ralph Lauren, right, is producing for multiple export destinations in Shanghai, and we do the test against a set of global market access standards for that jacket to go worldwide. That's the same in electrical, by the way, and that's the same in hard lines, right? That's the strength of our business model.
That's why it's very difficult for companies to set up their supply chain, right, because it's complex. They need to have the tier one, tier two, tier three suppliers feeding the factories, having the quality controls and logistic departments and the capacity to export and to take orders and, of course, to do that for multiple destinations. It is very complex to manage. It is also very complex to change, right? Does it make sense?
Yes, it does. That's very helpful. Yeah, that's much clearer. I mean,
my advice: don't try to decompose our Chinese testing business by export destinations because you cannot do that. You cannot do that because we test SKUs of product manufacturers for multiple destinations. I cannot do that for you. I know that people might want to do some proxy, but I'm never going to give you numbers that are not accurate, right?
All right? That is the beauty of our model. That is why our supply chain activities for our clients are very, very complex because when we do a testing protocol, we basically make sure that they meet all the standards they need for multiple export destinations, right? Your question on electrical, look, electrical has had a fantastic run. The performance we have announced today and the performance we have announced last year has been very, very, very broad-based, right? I mean, going back to the discussion we just had on the world of energy, the electrification of society is a mega growth driver for everyone in the world, right? That is where we are very, very well positioned. If you were to go back to Sony's presentation, the capital market event, you will see that we do that in electrical appliances, HVACs.
Obviously, we do a lot of medical devices and so on, right? We are broad-based. Yeah, I mean, this is an incredible compounding effect. I mean, if you look at this business in terms of forward-growth and growth, it continues to do very, very well. I am not concerned about electrical. I think the business is in really, really good shape. The electrification of society is a mega, mega, mega- trend for us, right?
Thank you very much.
There are no further questions on the webinar. I will now hand over to management for closing remarks.
Thank you very much to all of you for being on the call today. We really appreciate your time and certainly your interest, lots of interesting questions. I wish you a good day. If you have any more questions, of course, Denny is available whenever you want.
Thank you.