4/14/2026

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Intertech's Strategic Review and 2026 Q1 Trading Update. At this time, all participants are in 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 raised hand function at the bottom of your Zoom screen. If you have dialed in, please select star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 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.

speaker
André Lacroix
Chief Executive Officer

Good morning to you all, and thanks for joining us on our call. I would like to welcome Laura Christie, our new CFO on our call today, and of course, Denis Moreau, our VP of the Industrial Relations, is also on the call with us. There are three main takeaways in our calls today. First, we are announcing the start of a strategic review to determine whether we can accelerate growth and drive further shareholder value by creating two specialist-scale global AT businesses, Intertech Testing and Assurance and Intertech Energy and Infrastructure. The second key point on today's agenda, we had a strong start to the year with a robust like-for-like revenue growth at 5.4%, constant currency in the first quarter. And the third important message, we are confirming our full-year guidance. We are on track to deliver a strong 2026 with net single-digit like-for-like revenue growth as a constant currency, continuous margin progression, strong earning growth, and a strong free cash flow. I'd like to start by saying that we are truly energized by the launch of our strategic review to unleash the full potential of Intertech and deliver greater value for all. I am very proud of our passionate and talented colleagues who are building a stronger inter-tech every day in every single business with the disciplined executions behind our AAA growth strategy. We've launched our AAA strategy about three years ago. Since then, we've delivered annual revenue growth of 6% at constant currency, 240 bits margin accretion, an average EPS growth of 12% per annum, and of course, all of that with industry-leading margin and returns. Intertech has always been a pioneer in the industry, and true to our ever-better high-performance culture, we truly believe in the power of reinventing ourselves to accelerate growth and unleash our potential. We believe that the group has now reached a scale and breadth that would benefit from greater simplification and strategic focus to take our industry-leading global business lines to greater heights. That's why we have initiated a strategic review to evaluate whether the separation of e-tech testing and assurance and e-tech energy infrastructure, either by the way of the SER or the merger, could accelerate growth and create greater value for shareholders. In a strong growth environment that we are experiencing across our markets, we believe that two specialist-scale global e-tech businesses could be better positioned to unlock our full potential. Intertech Testing and Assurance and Intertech Energy Infrastructure are high-quality businesses with scale and are renowned for their science-based AP customer excellence and have earned the trust of our clients through the delivery of superior customer service for many years. Both businesses have compelling opportunities for further growth and value creation. They are offering premium market-leading AP solutions to their clients through their global network and we believe could grow faster with a more focused portfolio strategy sharper capital allocation, and faster in-market execution. Intertech Testing and Assurance and Intertech Energy and Infrastructure have different customers operating in different markets with different financial characteristics and offer distinct value propositions. The decentralized and coordinated operating structure that we have in place at Intertech means that these two businesses, has built the talents, the processes, has the assets and technology capability they need to thrive in today's and tomorrow's market. During the strategic review, which will be concluded and implemented by mid-2027, we will remain very focused on the disciplined execution of our AAA strategy, delivering on our corporate goals, of meeting legit life-for-life revenue goals at constant currency, continuous margin progression, strong cash generation, disciplined capital allocation, and an excellent RIC. Let me turn briefly to trading in the last three months. As usual, all the comments we'll make are at constant frequency. We have benefited from a strong demand for ATIC solutions across our divisions and geographies, enabling us to deliver a robust 5.4% like-for-like revenue at the group level. Our consumer product division delivered like-for-like revenue growth of 6.5%, delivered with mid-single-digit life-for-life revenue growth in South Rhine, high single-digit life-for-life growth in Hardline and Electrical, while GTS delivered a mid-single-digit negative life-for-life performance, as it was impacted by trading disruptions in the Mid-East. Our Corporate Assurance Division delivered life-for-life revenue growth of 10.8%, driven by double-digit life-for-life growth in Business Assurance, while we saw low single-digit negative life-for-life performance within Assurance, due to a baseline effect linked to a few large contracts that lapsed at the end of June last year. Our Health and Safety Division delivered life-for-life revenue growth of 5.9%, driven by double-digit life-for-life revenue growth, mid-single-digit in food, mid-single-digit life-for-life revenue growth in C&P, and our AgriWorld delivered a stable life-for-life performance. Our Industry and Infrastructure Division delivered life-for-life revenue growth of 5.5%, with low single-digit life-for-life revenue growth in industry services, with double-digit life-for-life revenue growth in our minerals business, and a low single-digit life-for-life revenue performance in building and construction. Our world energy division delivered a stable life-for-life revenue performance, with low single-digit life-for-life revenue growth within Caledbrecht and CEA, while our transportation technology business reported a negative double-digit life-for-life revenue performance due to the reduction by self-organized and R&D investments as they continue to focus on cost reduction in a challenging automotive environment. As always, there is much more detail in the R&S. Overall, we had a strong start to 2026, and let's now discuss the performance at the group level for Q1. Our revenue for Q1 grew 6.7% to 838.5 million pounds. Our lack-for-lack revenue growth, as I said, was 5.4%, driven by growth volume and pricing. The four acquisitions we made in 2025 to scale up our portfolio in attractive growth in margin sectors with CETIS in Brazil and Barrel Lab in Australia, CEPLI Lab in Costa Rica, and PTN in the U.S. are all performing very well. We saw continued margin progression as we benefited from division mix, operating leverage, cost control, and productivity improvements. We delivered a strong free cash flow and continued to operate with a strong balance sheet. We continue to invest in organic and inorganic growth opportunities. We've recently announced the acquisition of Aerial PV in Europe to expand our market-leading position in solar energy, and the acquisition of Q-Test in Colombia to expand our electrical business in an attractive Latin American market. Coming now to the outlook for 2026, we are confirming our full-year guidance. We expect to deliver mixed single-digit life-for-life revenue growth at constant currency, with high single-digit life-for-life in corporate assurance, mixed single-digit life-for-life in consumer product, industry infrastructures, and low single-digit like-for-like inheritance safety and the world of energy. We are targeting further margin progression, which, combined with expected revenue growth, will deliver strong earning growth. Our cash discipline will remain in place to deliver a strong free cash flow. We'll invest in growth with a capex of circa 150 to 160 million pounds. We'll, of course, continue to deliver an excellent ROIC. A quick update on currency for your model. The average starting rate in the last three months, applied to the full year results of 2025, will be broadly neutral at the revenue and operating profit level. In addition, going forward, I'm pleased to announce that we'll be providing quarterly trading updates for the three months ending March and September. In conclusion, we have seen a significant performance acceleration with a strong delivery of our pre-play strategy, and looking ahead, we are super excited about the significant value growth opportunity. To deliver quality growth and value for our shareholders, we'll capitalize on our high-quality cash compounding earning models, benefiting year after year from the compounding effect of mid-to-mid-life productivity growth, continuous market appreciation, strong free cash flow, and disciplined investments in high-growth and high-margin sectors. Our enduring competitive advantage underpins our confidence to deliver quality growth moving forward. We operate a high-quality portfolio with leading-scale positions in attractive industries, that are all poised for global growth. We are the premier leader in quality assurance with superior AT customer service, which has earned the trust of all of our clients over the years. Our high-quality cash component earnings model is underpinned by disciplined performance management, both on financial and non-financial metrics. Our science-based organization is a high-performance organization. We attract and we develop and retain the best talent in the industry. And last but not least, we operate with the culture of doing business the right way, with strong controls, compliance, and very strong governance. The strategic review we are announcing today will determine if the separation of Intertech Testing and Assurance and Intertech Energy Infrastructure into two specialist-scale global active leaders will augment this enduring competitive advantage with three major benefits. First, the focused specialist portfolio approach for each business resulting in greater strategic focus. Second, a sharper capital allocation to see the immediate and long-term growth opportunities targeting faster market share gains. And third, a simpler business to manage, resulting in faster in-market executions, increased productivity, and higher returns. We are all energized about the start of our strategic review to unleash our full potential and see the significant value growth opportunities ahead. Having said that, We all remain laser-focused on delivering quality roles in Q2, Q3, Q4 to make sure that we have a strong 2026 and, of course, we continue to deliver a strong performance in 2027 and beyond. Thank you for joining our call today. We'll take now any questions you might have.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

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 Zoom screen or star nine on your telephone keypad. We'll pause a moment to allow the queue to form. Our first question comes from Rory McKenzie with UBS. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

speaker
Rory McKenzie
Analyst, UBS

Good morning, Andre. It's Rory here. My first question I just want to ask about, I guess, why now? I think all the divisions have always been run relatively independently, and the historic view in the testing sector was that there's a benefit to there being a large central brand to leverage. So can you explain more about why you think that there's this kind of more focused specialist approach for each unit to accelerate organic growth and what that would really change? And then secondly, in terms of any carve-out, can you just talk to me more about how Intertech is structured today? Does the division have existing different management and finance teams? What costs might you need to build up so each unit can stand alone? And just how do you expect to go through the process of legal entity separation for different countries? Thank you.

speaker
André Lacroix
Chief Executive Officer

All right. Thanks, Roy. Look, this is a strategic installation that we've been thinking about for quite a long time. This is not a short-term thinking. We came to the conclusion that the generalist portfolio model, that is the one we've been using for decades to build global scale in each of our global business lines, you know, local scales in each of our markets, developing the depth and breadth of IT solutions has been doing extremely well for us, but might be reaching its potential. And there is merit in greater strategic focus. There is merit in sharper capital locations, and there is merit in faster in-market execution. And what we are proposing is to evaluate the merits of these strategic assumptions. Of course, we have not made decisions. We'll obviously work on that. But it is our working assumptions that the specialist portfolio model will drive greater focus, sharper capital locations, and faster in-market executions, and accelerate growth. And why we're doing it now? Because we've concluded that the journalist portfolio strategic approach is reaching its full potential. This is not a new idea. This is something we've been thinking about for quite a long time. And of course, today we are just announcing the start of the strategic review that I just explained. How are the businesses being managed today? We have, as we've talked about in the past, an operating model that is decentralized and coordinated. What does decentralized mean? It means that an higher office here In London, we operate with a very little overhead unit. We have about 50 to 60 people here in London. All of our resources, that's why we are the best in terms of customer service, have always been in the market. And essentially, all of our global verticals have got their own operational teams and functional teams. So to the question about these synergies in terms of supporting cost, look, it's still early in the process, but given the fact that we've operated with a very decentralized and coordinated approach where the resources are in the market and the processes are aligned with very, very state-of-the-art technology, we believe that these will be limited in terms of these synergies. But that's the work that we have to do with Laura and the team.

speaker
Rory McKenzie
Analyst, UBS

Yeah, I understand that. It's still early. And just to clarify, I guess in most countries, Intertech only currently have one legal entity, and will that be, again, something that works in different jurisdictions?

speaker
André Lacroix
Chief Executive Officer

No, look, in terms of legal entities, we have, you know, plenty of legal entities. So we're going to go through all of these. Don't worry.

speaker
Rory McKenzie
Analyst, UBS

Right. Thank you, Andre.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Our next question comes from Suhasani Varanasi with Goldman Sachs. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

speaker
Suhasani Varanasi
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

I think you should be unmuted.

speaker
spk03

Hello. Hi. Hope you can hear me. Thank you. Two questions from me, please. Number one, clearly a pretty strong start to the year, which is very reassuring to see. Just wanted to check if there was a bit of a catch-up effect from November, December last year, which is obviously a bit slower than expected. And have you seen any changes to the operating environment since the Middle East conflict started? Any changes to oil and gas trade volumes or any increases to oil and gas cap extremes, for example? And the second one is on the strategic review. Can you help us understand maybe what would make you consider a sale versus a demerger or vice versa? And will you be considering also a change in listing maybe to the U.S.? That's it. Thank you.

speaker
André Lacroix
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Thanks. I mean, on the second question, right, all the ideas you mentioned are options available to us. It's very early on. We're going to be evaluating every single option with a very, you know, simple goal to maximize, obviously, the value we can create through the separations for our shareholders and not only the value and including, of course, the certainty if we decide to do so. So, look, plenty of options to consider, as you rightly said, but it's too early to say, but we are considering all potential options. We are very, very open and we have not determined if we do that, how we're going to do it. As far as the performance in Q1, Look, it was a very strong start indeed. I wouldn't say that we had some catch-up from orders that were not fulfilled in Q4 because, as you know, our customers cannot wait. I mean, when we deliver a testing report or an assurance report, it's got to be done with a short turnaround time. So it's really a representation of the organic performance of the group. The question that you have asked on the Middle East is an important one. Let me just give you a bit of background, what's happening in the Middle East and what does it mean for oil and gas. Maybe if I were to contextualize, what is the Middle East business for Intertech? It's about 6% of the group revenue. We have multiple business lines, but the three biggest business lines we have in the Middle East are Calibret, Industry Services, and GTS. The Middle East business was slightly down in the month of March, low single digit, but was up double digit in Q1. This is a strongly performing business for Intertech. There is no question that within these three large business lines, Calibret, Industry Services, and GTS, the two businesses that were mostly impacted are Calibret, which was double-digit negative in March in the Middle East, and GTS, which was, as I said during my remark, impacted by trading. What does it mean in terms of the overall oil and gas trends? You asked the questions. We all know that the Middle East is about 20% of the daily supply and consumption of oil and gas around the world. And clearly, the production and the export out of the Middle East has obviously reduced in the country in large. It's public information. Now, it takes time for a cargo to go from Dubai to Singapore or to Australia, so there is a bit of a lag in what it means for supply chains of our clients at the receiving end. We expect, obviously, Asia to be the most impacted region if things continue as they are today. Having said that, we are seeing a very, very strong acceleration of production and export in the Americas, where Intertech is very, very strong, as you know. So that's the situation. Obviously, we are following that very, very carefully. Our teams have remained active. operational, despite the war and the safety considerations that have been taken very seriously by all of our colleagues locally in the Middle East. We are ready to start, obviously, providing testing and inspection to our clients when the export of the threat of almost start to increase again. But at the moment, it's quite a slow business environment. But having said all of that, the Middle East is only 6% of inter-tech group revenue. And within Calibrate globally, which is, I think, the important business line to have in mind, it's also 6%, right? So we can manage.

speaker
Suhasani Varanasi
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

That's pretty clear.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Annalise Vermeulen with Morgan Stanley. Please unmute your line and ask your question. Hi, good morning. Hope you can hear me. Two questions, please. Hi. Two questions, please. So firstly, on the strategic review, could you elaborate a little bit more on why you think diversification is not the right strategy? Or rather, you've talked about seeing the generalist model reaching its full potential. What indicators would you point to that that is the case? Like, what are you seeing in the business that makes you think, actually, we can't unlock the full value while remaining as one business? What are the barriers to do that? And then secondly, again, if you think about your M&A strategy as you undergo this review, would you expect to allocate capital to acquisitions across sort of both of these buckets of businesses, or do you think you'll focus more on the consumer side? Thank you.

speaker
André Lacroix
Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Annalise. I mean, look, on the second question – It's business as usual, right? We have not made our mind. We are initiating a strategic review to see if it makes sense. But as far as running the business for value and growth, we're not going to change anything. I think your question is, where do you see the benefits? I think if you go back into the history of Intertech, and I'm not going to go too far in time, just when we obviously listed the company here in London at the beginning of the century. The businesses had an operating model that was essentially made of verticals, i.e. global, centrally driven organizations to develop the industry through global accounts. I'm just making it simple for us to understand. And that worked tremendously for us to basically develop the market. There was a very big inflection when the organization decided that to augment the growth for global accounts, we also had to focus at the local level and trying to benefit with local customers. That's when the organization that we have today, which is essentially a matrix between global verticals and regions, was created to make sure that we scale up, not only with global accounts, but with local accounts. We have now reached a real strong position in each of our markets. We have scaled global verticals, local verticals, and there is no question that when you run a region, if you run a region with 15 business lines, there is complexity attached to making decisions that are the right decisions in terms of people, cash allocations, investments, M&A for these 15 businesses. And we believe that to take the business to the next phase of growth, we would benefit from, number one, more strategic focus in terms of portfolio. What does it mean? It means that the management that is running, you know, that country or that region will be focused on fewer industries, being closer to their customers, certainly having, you know, sharper insights in terms of innovations. And when it comes to, you know, people development and executions, it will, you know, simplify the agenda. The second area is capital allocation. When you operate in a group like Intertech, you have a certain envelope of capital allocation, which we've talked about as 4% to 5% every year. But there is arbitrage. And there is de facto, you know, competition between high-growth, low-margin business, high-growth, high-margin business. And you can imagine that in two separate units, you will operate with a capital location that is, you know, focused on your own market. And these two, you know, businesses that we talked about, Intertech Testing and Assurance and Intertech Energy Infrastructures, operate in different, you know, end markets. Intertech Testing and Assurance is obviously focused on global leading brands, FMCVs, you know, retailers, or Intertech Energy and infrastructure is focused on the global world of energy, transform gas, you know, renewables, and, of course, the infrastructure investments through the work that we are seeing with our minerals and BNC. So there will be a sheer benefit from sharper, you know, capital locations. And then the last point in terms of decision-making, the focus that you're going to create at the portfolio level, the complexity that you're going to remove will accelerate decision-making and de facto accelerate in market execution. So we have now decided we're going to do that. We want to evaluate if these strategic working assumptions I just talked about the specialist portfolio model, capital allocation policy that is dedicated for each business, and faster market executions will accelerate growth and create more value for our shareholders. That's the work we're going to do right now. But we believe that it might be the time to take the next inflection in the way we run a group to move from the generalist portfolio model to a specialist model with two global eight-week business of scale.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Perfect. Thanks very much, Leo. Thank you. Just as a follow-up, you've obviously said several times it's different end markets, different customers, so can we assume there's not a lot of customer overlap between these two segments, and therefore you don't see any risk of revenue dis-energies from breaking up the business?

speaker
André Lacroix
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, you said it right.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Perfect. Thank you. Our next question comes from James Roland Clark with Barclays. Please press star six to unmute and ask your question. James, that's star six on your telephone keypad to unmute.

speaker
James Roland Clark
Analyst, Barclays

Thank you. Can you hear me?

speaker
André Lacroix
Chief Executive Officer

Of course. Morning.

speaker
James Roland Clark
Analyst, Barclays

Morning, morning. Three questions, please, on the strategic review. I'd just be interested to know if, in the recent history, you've been approached by buyers for any of your verticals within World of Energy and industry and infrastructure, and whether those interested parties tended to be trade buyers or private equities. My second question is on health and safety. That's a division you're planning to keep. It's underperformed the group. It's grown low, sort of single digits this year, and you've done a sort of restructuring in that division. Is there any reason why that isn't considered within your strategic review as potential for sale or demerger? And then finally, assurance improves a lot in Q1 versus the end of the year. And I think you mentioned this in the answer to Sini's question.

speaker
André Lacroix
Chief Executive Officer

question but if you only catch up there can you just help us with what the underlying growth really is in assurance at the moment thank you yeah all right so let's just start with the last question no there is no catch up in assurance as i was saying um to your colleague i mean we have a key priority with every single of our customers for turnaround time right if you basically uh you know test T-shirts or jeans, you know, you've got to deliver, you know, your report within a few days. And it's the same with insurance. I mean, our clients, you know, don't wait very long. So, no, I think there is no catch-up to the growth that we got in Q1, basically because we had built the backlog of demand for Q1 and the rest of 2026. As far as health and safety, look, health and safety... Yes, had a bit of a slow 25, but I just want to put things into context. I mean, we did 7% revenue growth in 23, 7.9% revenue growth in 24, and we did 5.9% revenue growth in Q1. So this is a strongly performing business. Yes, we had a bit of a slowdown in one of our business lines last year for the reason we talked about it, but it's a fantastic business. And going back to the question that Anne Louise was asking about customers. I mean, the big difference between industry, so energy infrastructure and testing and assurance. Testing and assurance work for global leading brands, being retailers or consumer brands. And this is a business that is definitely part of testing and assurance division moving forward. And it's been performing very well. Recognizing that we had a bit of a slowdown in 2025, but as you know, she cannot keep growing full speed ahead every single year. I thought as your first question on strategic review, no, we've never received any formal offer or approach for one of our, you know, world of energy business. So, that's quite what I'm saying.

speaker
Suhasani Varanasi
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Excellent. Thank you. Our next question comes from Victoria Chang with J.P. Morgan. You are in the meeting now. In progress.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you for your patience, everybody. Victoria, if you'd like to repeat your question. Thank you very much. Yeah, thank you. Can you hear me?

speaker
André Lacroix
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, of course. Sorry for that, Victoria. Apologies.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Yeah, of course. So my question was, if you can confirm that you expect to keep all business lines within industry and infrastructure and blood of energy in the inter-tech new energy and infrastructure business, Or are there certain business lines that you could expect to move into the rest of the business? For example, CEA, which I understand could be a bit more assurance-based. My second question is also on assurance activities. What percentage or how big is the assurance activity business within industry and infrastructure and world of energy? and do you expect that to stay there, or does it make more sense to move any kind of assurance activities into the other business? Thank you.

speaker
André Lacroix
Chief Executive Officer

Yes, thanks. I mean, really two very good questions. CEA, which is our solar assurance business, will move into the electrical business because this is the way it's run. It's obviously, you know, solar panels and and energy storage and battery, and it's managed today by our global electrical business. So that will basically move from the world of energy into a consumer product. The rest doesn't change. Your question on assurance is really a good one. We have developed our 80 value proposition over the years, and when we offer assurance, we have two types of assurance solutions. We have the assurance solutions that are industry-specific and which are basically managed by the, you know, business lines. Let's just say, you know, BNC or Moody or Calibrate. And you've got the industry agnostic assurance solutions that are part of corporate assurance. So that's the distinctions that we make. All right? So nothing will change in terms of the ATIC solutions that Caledret or BNC or Moody provides and sells their class today. All right?

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

I see. Okay. Is it possible if you could disclose what level of industry-specific activities you have within Intertech energy and infrastructure?

speaker
André Lacroix
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Look, we disclose the APIC revenues on a global basis every year. And if you want to get a sense of the weight, if you want, in terms of revenue, of the non-industry agnostic assurance solution, the best way is to take the A revenue, that you have a group level, minus the corporate assurance, and you will get the answer.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Okay, I understand. Sorry, just one more follow-up. Government and trade services within consumer products. Do you think it makes sense to continue fitting there, or do you think it's more natural synergy?

speaker
André Lacroix
Chief Executive Officer

Of course, of course. We're working with global brands, right?

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Okay, that makes sense. Thank you. Of course. Our next question comes from Virginia Montorsi with Bank of America. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

speaker
Virginia Montorsi
Analyst, Bank of America

Thank you very much for taking my question. Just a quick one. Could you remind us what was the M&A contribution in health and safety in Q1? I will contribute mostly to it. Thank you.

speaker
André Lacroix
Chief Executive Officer

Essentially, we bought a business called Envirolab, which is an Australian-based environmental testing insurance business, and it was the main driver of the difference between organic and total revenue.

speaker
Virginia Montorsi
Analyst, Bank of America

Perfect. Thank you very much. You're welcome.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Our next question comes from Joffrey Michelet with ODDOBHS. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

speaker
Joffrey Michelet
Analyst, Oddo BHF

Yes, thank you. Two questions for me. First one on the TT business, which is still affected. Do you have any change in the tonality of your client about when they speak about, say, coming back on the market within this division? And then the second question is on the medallist description. Can you describe us some positive side effects that you are seeing? You talked a bit about oil and gas in the U.S. Is it something that we witnessed already in Q1, or is it more something that you anticipate for Q2 and going forward? Thank you very much.

speaker
André Lacroix
Chief Executive Officer

Yes, great questions. Look, CT remains very challenging for our clients. Look, we expect that our clients are going to resume investments in R&D. Based on the discussion we had, they're not obviously reducing their innovation. investments over time, but at the moment they're still, you know, on the short term, you know, costing cash management. So it remains very tough and we'll take it step at a time. We'll see how the second half, you know, unfolds. As far as the positive effect outside of the Middle East in Q1, yeah, I mean, clearly, you know, we had, you know, a very strong performance for Cadet Brent in the Americas, both North America and LATAM. Why? Because, of course, Europe is importing more from the U.S. and LATAM, and we've seen some benefit from it. No question. All right.

speaker
Joffrey Michelet
Analyst, Oddo BHF

Thank you very much.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please use the raise hand function at the bottom of your Zoom screen or star nine on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Joe Brent with Panmure Library. Please unmute your line and ask your question. Joe Brent, that is star six on your keypad. Thank you.

speaker
Joe Brent
Analyst, Panmure Library

Good morning. Can you hear me? Hi, good morning. Two sort of related questions, really. Firstly, you've hopefully given a divisional split of revenue for the potential demerger. Could you give us some indication of what the profits of those two businesses could look like? And secondly, I appreciate this early in the process, but just thinking about potential extra costs from having two businesses versus one, Is it fair to say that you'd expect the extra cost to be less than 1% of total sales?

speaker
André Lacroix
Chief Executive Officer

All right. So in terms of the margin of the two businesses, when you look at our full year disclosures, essentially you have the contribution margin by division after all overhead allocations at the group level. And as I said, earlier in the call, we do not have a lot of overheads in the center. We operate a decentralized, you know, market-focused business model. So, if you do crudely, you know, the margin calculations based on these disclosures, you will get a sense of the margin of both, you know, Inditec testing and assurance and Inditec energy and infrastructure. Of course, Laura and I are going to need to do some work on overhead allocation and absorption, which obviously will change this margin profile a bit, but it's not going to be something that we believe is going to be materially different. But there will be some, obviously, change of economics based on overhead absorption, depending on the formula that we use and where we put the overhead allocation. As far as how much incremental costs are going to be, you know, added to the business, this is something that we're going to do diligently during the strategic review. Of course, if, you know, you do the merger and you list, you know, two businesses, i.e. we have to list another business installation to Intertech today, they will have a certain level of cost. If, obviously, you do a sale, it's a different level of cost. So this is going to be part of the work we're going to do. And, you know, I'm not going to say much more than that for now.

speaker
Joe Brent
Analyst, Panmure Library

Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

There are no further questions on the webinar. I will now hand over to management for closing remarks.

speaker
André Lacroix
Chief Executive Officer

Well, thank you very much for being on the call today. I know it was, you know, on short notice. We really appreciate you making the time for Intertech. And then Denny will be available if you have any more questions. Thank you very much.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you for your participation in today's call. You may now disconnect.

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