Rentokil Initial moves upwards on Q3 update

The price of shares in FTSE 100 pest control firm Rentokil Initial (LON:RTO) has risen by 3.13% to 533.20p (as of 10:55 BST) after reporting a 4.3% increase in revenues for the third quarter. Continued demand for hygiene services helped drive the improvement while the pest control division returned to growth after a decline during the second quarter.

CEO Andy Ransom commented: “The Company performed very strongly in the third quarter and today’s results further demonstrate the resilience of our Pest Control and Hygiene businesses across the world. We have consistently delivered year-on-year revenue growth each month since the declines in April and May during the peak of the crisis. This performance has been achieved through a combination of a return to more regular levels of service provision across our categories, continued high demand for one-time disinfection services and the benefit of acquisitions made in 2019.

I would like to express my sincere thanks to all of our 43,000 colleagues for their amazing work and dedication to customers during these challenging times. Our people will always be the essential driver of our success as we continue to protect public health and ensure safe working environments around the world.

It remains impossible to predict the future development of the COVID-19 pandemic. It could have a direct impact on our trading performance, including resurgence of global cases of COVID-19, new and continued Coronavirus restrictions, potential customer insolvencies and bad debt, as well as indirectly depending how demand for our services is impacted by the economic consequences of the pandemic. In addition, we anticipate demand for disinfection services will reduce as businesses return to more normal trading conditions and as service frequencies potentially decrease.

Notwithstanding the above, we are hopeful that the momentum in our core customer base will be maintained through the fourth quarter and this, together with our performance in Q3, means we currently expect the outcome for the full year to be at least in line with expectations“.