Rentokil Initial results lure investors in

The price of shares in Rentokil Initial (LON:RTO) rose by 7.17% to 352.60p (as of 13:40 GMT) after the pest extermination firm announced an 8.8% improvement in adjusted profits before tax for the 2018 full year. Ongoing revenues were up by 13.2% and were primarily driven by M&A activity.

CEO Andy Ransom commented: “We continue to execute our Right Way plan to deliver revenue and profit growth and the business has performed very well in 2018. In Pest Control, our focus on innovation and digital technology to drive growth is working well and is a core strength of the business. Hygiene has performed strongly, not only aided by the very good acquisitions of CWS Italy and Cannon Hygiene but organically, with a delivery of 2.8% towards the top of our range of growth expectations. In addition, 18 months ago we set ourselves an ambitious objective of returning our France business to year-on-year profitable growth and we are delighted to have achieved this in 2018.

“We have delivered a very strong year of M&A, with a record 47 high-quality acquisitions building scale and density and also enabling us to broaden our expertise in newer growth areas, such as vector control and fumigation. We have a very active pipeline of high quality prospects in place, so I am confident of another good year in 2019“.