Capital testing outfit Exova cautions over ‘modest’ growth

Exova, the Edinburgh-headquartered materials testing specialist that recently agreed to a £620 million takeover, said its growth this year will be “more modest” than that seen in 2016.

The group, which employs more than 4,200 people worldwide, said total reve- nues during the four months to the end of April edged up 2 per cent, with a string of recent acquisitions helping to offset a decline in organic growth.

In a trading update yesterday, Exova told investors that conditions in the oil and gas market remained “challenging”, but it enjoyed “strong” growth in the aerospace segment and its transportation business had performed better than its board expected.

Exova has about 200 staff in Scotland and last month agreed to a takeover approach from Dutch rival Element Materials Technology.

Shareholders are due to vote on the deal on 9 June.

Chief executive Ian Elmokadem said: “The group has generally performed as expected in the first four months of 2017.

“We continue to generate organic growth outside of our oil, gas and industrials sector, albeit to more modest levels than in 2016, as we expected.”

He added: “We continue to make good progress with acquisitions, with an encouraging pipeline which should continue to contribute to overall revenue growth.”

Shares in the group nudged up 0.25p to 239p. 0 CEO Ian El-mokadem says group performing as expected