Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Intertek May 2024 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 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. Instructions will also follow at the time of 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 to start the presentation. Good morning to you all, and thanks for joining our call today. I'm here with Colm, our CFO, and Denis, our VP of Investor Relations, and there are essentially five takeaways from our call today. First, trading in the first four months of the year was slightly stronger than expected, with 7% like-for-like revenue growth at constant currency. We've delivered a robust margin performance driven by pricing, operating leverage, cost control, and productivity improvements. Our disciplined cash conversion, strong, drove strong free cash flow. We are reconfirming our full-year guidance at constant currency, and the execution of our AAA differentiated growth strategy is on track. I would like to start our call today by answering the most frequently asked questions we've had in meetings since we announced our full-year results a few weeks ago. The first question we get is: why do you have the confidence to deliver mid-single-digit like-for-like revenue growth on a sustainable basis? We all know the eight TIC structural growth opportunities are very attractive. Companies have increased their investments in risk-based quality Assurance in the last two decades, and importantly, based on the growing challenge they face in their supply chain and more and more demanding stakeholders or clients, will invest more moving forward. Indeed, our customer research shows that the structural AT growth drivers will be augmented by the need for companies to operate with safer and more resilient supply chain, continued investments by corporation in new products and services, especially for these companies that have increased prices very, very strongly in the last few years and are seeing volume decline. A step change in how companies manage the stability. You know that the regulatory framework is evolving every single day. We expect increased investments in traditional oil and gas infrastructure and, of course, renewables. And lastly, we expect an increase in the number of new clients, both in developing and emerging economies. It's never been easier to start a new business in our world today. Against this backdrop, we operate a high-quality portfolio, extremely well-positioned to deliver faster growth, and that's why we expect to deliver mid-single digit like-for-like revenue growth on sustainable basis at constant currency. The second question we get is: What are the building blocks to go to a 17.5%+ margin over time? For us, margin accretive revenue growth is central to the way we manage performance at Intertek. You will remember that between 2014 and 2019, we were the only global-listed TIC companies that delivered 200 basis points+ of margin accretion. In 2021 and 2022, our margin performance was, of course, impacted by COVID and a higher-than-expected inflation. In 2023, you would recall, we reported a 60 basis points margin improvement at constant currency. We have made further progress on margin in the first 4 months of the year, and we are on track to deliver our medium-term target of 17.5%+ margin. You will recall that during our full-year results presentation a few weeks ago, I gave specific examples about how we manage margin in every single business. When driving margin accretive revenue growth, we focus our teams on five simple, yet powerful, value drivers. First, the portfolio effect. This is how we manage volume, price, and mix. Second, the fixed cost leverage linked to revenue growth, and of course, the faster revenue grows, the better operating leverage. The variable cost productivity improvement, which is very important. As you grow, you want to get more productive. Targeted fixed cost reduction. We never stop looking at costs that are unnecessary, that can be taken out, and importantly, margin accretive investments in innovation, technology, and growth capability. To execute these priorities, we have proven enablers in the organization that have been tested for so many years, and some of you know these very well. First, we run the company based on a daily, weekly, monthly performance management cadence. We do best-in-class benchmarking analysis every single month. We are very disciplined on price, capitalizing on our superior customer service. Our capital allocation policy is targeting investments in high growth and high margin segments, and our management incentive has been designed to reward margin accretive revenue growth. We are confident we'll achieve our medium target margin of 17.5%+ over time for three simple reasons: We have the proven tool and processes, we operate a wide span of performance, and we have a very disciplined, accretive portfolio strategy. The third question we are getting is: What is the performance in the first four months of the year within your consumer activities, and what do you expect for the full year? You've seen the numbers this morning. Our consumer products business delivered a 6.2% like-for-like revenue growth in the first four months, which was slightly ahead of expectations. What happened? Following a difficult 2023, fashion and general retailers entered 2024 with low levels of inventory and started to invest in the development of new SKUs, given the positive outlook for consumer demands in both discretionary and non-discretionary categories. That's why we saw a high single-digit like-for-like revenue growth in Softlines, a mid-single-digit like-for-like revenue growth in Hardlines, and both the like-for-like revenue growth in Softlines and Hardlines were broad-based from a geographic standpoint, which is really good news for us. Demand is strong in every single country where we operate Hardlines and Softlines The other important point is that the electrification of society, and we talked about it at length during Capital Markets event in San Diego, continues to strongly support the growth of our Electrical business, which has delivered a high single-digit like-for-like revenue growth. I would remind everyone on the call that our Electrical business had steady growth year after year and didn't decline in 2020. Finally, GTS was in line with expectations. So we are revising our 2024 guidance for Consumer Products division, and we are now expecting mid-single-digit like-for-like revenue growth within our consumer product. The fourth question we get is: how well are you positioned in the context of changes in the global supply chain of your clients? Supply chain never stands still in the world today, and we have seen structural change in the operations of our clients in the last few decades on regular basis. Our mantra at Intertek is simple: we always anticipate where our clients will take the supply chain using the 6,000 interviews we do with our customers every month. Our global footprint and our capital-light business model make us very agile, giving us the ability to move fast if we need to build additional AT capability for our clients in existing or new markets. Over the years, we have invested in many markets to expand our global footprint. This is how we've built a strong presence in Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Morocco, Guatemala, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. There have been a lot of discussions about brands exiting their manufacturing footprint in China. I can tell you that we only have seen a handful of brands doing so. Changing production location is a high-risk decision for any business. However, what we've seen is that companies are pursuing a China Plus One strategy. They are building their supply chain for new businesses in new countries to operate a more diversified footprint. That has resulted in additional investments in countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, India, and Bangladesh for hardlines and softlines. While the manufacturing activities have continued to grow in China, benefiting from growth in existing categories, new brands deciding to produce in China, as well as expanding in new sectors. You've seen the expansion of the Chinese export industry in the solar panels and, of course, EV industry. We all know that China has a track record of manufacturing excellence and good customer service. That's why the export economy in 2023 was 37% larger than in 2019, and that's why our Chinese business has continued to deliver mid-single digit like-for-like revenue growth. We also have seen investments in nearshoring to reduce the time to market and CO2 emissions, and the main beneficiaries are Egypt, Turkey, Portugal, Morocco, Guatemala, and Mexico. Finally, we are seeing onshoring investments in the renewable sectors, with manufacturing investments in energy storage, solar, and wind, and these are strategic sectors for the energy security of the European and North American markets. There is no question that the Inflation Reduction Act is triggering a significant step up in greener energy investments in the U.S. The fifth question we are getting is: how are the competitive dynamics inside the industry, and what are the Intertek differentiating factors? An important point to make upfront is that our competitive set is very broad. The tier one group of companies in our industry, made of publicly listed companies, and a tier two group, made of mid-sized businesses being non-for-profit or owned by private equity sponsors, together represents less than 25% of the global industry. Intertek offers its clients a differentiated value proposition based on very distinct attributes, and let me go through these one by one. First, we have a very decentralized and empowered organization, which makes us truly customer-centric, and that's why we deliver the best customer service in the industry. We operate a high-quality portfolio with well-capitalized scale businesses. You've seen during our capital market event, the quality of our labs around the world. We are the only player in the industry offering our clients end-to-end risk-based quality assurance with our TQA solutions. We've built, over the years, a comprehensive suite of leading and lagging indicators for every business, and that gives us a strong data advantage. And lastly, but importantly, we believe in the power of continuous improvement. A high-performance culture, combined with our data advantage, means that we never stop challenging ourselves on how we improve our processes and solution to provide better value. Let's now discuss our trading highlights, and all the comments I will make are at constant currency. In the last four months, the group has delivered 7% like-for-like revenue growth, slightly ahead of expectation. Our Consumer Products division delivered like-for-like revenue growth of 6.2%, as we just discussed, driven by high single-digit like-for-like performance in Softlines and Electrical, while Hardlines delivered mid-single digit like-for-like revenue growth. GTS was slightly below last year. Our Corporate Assurance division delivered like-for-like revenue growth of 7.6%, driven by high single-digit like-for-like performance in Business Assurance and mid-single digit performance within assurance. Our Health and Safety division delivered a like-for-like revenue growth of 9.9%, driven by double-digit like-for-like performance in Food and AgriWorld, while C&P delivered a high single digit like-for-like performance. Our Industry and Infrastructure division delivered like-for-like revenue growth of 4.2%, driven by mid-single digit like-for-like performance in our industry services and mineral business, and low single digit like-for-like growth in Building & Construction. Our World of Energy division delivered a like-for-like revenue growth of 9.4%, driven by double digit like-for-like increase in Caleb Brett and CA, and mid-single digit like-for-like growth in TT. Turning now to the performance at the group on a year-to-date basis, revenue for the four months to the end of April grew 7.5% at constant currency and 2% at actual rates, to GBP 1,081 million. Like-for-like revenue growth of 7% at constant currency was broad-based, benefiting from both volume and pricing. Acquisitions contributed GBP 5.6 million revenue on a year-to-date basis. The Controle Analítico, PlayerLync and Base Met Labs acquisition we made in 2023 and 2024 to scale up our portfolio in attractive growth and managing sectors are performing very well. Margin progression was robust. We benefited from our pricing initiatives, good operating leverage, disciplined cost controls, and productivity improvements. We've delivered a strong free cash flow and continue to operate with a robust balance sheet. We continue to invest in organic and inorganic growth opportunities. Let's now discuss our guidance for the full year of 2024. We continue to expect the group will deliver mid-single digit like-for-like revenue growth at constant currency. Given the strong start to the year, we have raised our guidance in Consumer Products to mid-single-digit and to high single-digit for Health and Safety, as well as the World of Energy. Our expectations remain for high single-digit growth in Corporate Assurance. We are revising outlook for Industry and Infrastructure to mid-single-digit. We are, of course, targeting margin progression. Our cash discipline will remain in place to deliver strong free cash flow. We'll invest in growth with CapEx of circa GBP 135 million-GBP 145 million, and we expect our financial net debt to be in the range of GBP 510 million-GBP 560 million before any M&A or Forex movements. A quick update on currencies for your model. The average selling rate in the last 3 months applied to the full year results of 2023 would reduce our full year revenues and operating profit, respectively, by circa 200 bps and 300 bps. What does it mean? Net net, we are on track to deliver our full year guidance at constant currency and the market expectations for 2024, notwithstanding the Forex volatility we are seeing in the market. A year ago, at our capital market event, we presented our Intertek AAA differentiated growth strategy to unlock the significant value growth opportunities ahead. All of us at Intertek are laser focused on taking our company to greater heights, and I'm pleased to report that the execution of our AAA growth strategy is on track. We've made strong progress between 2014 and 2023, delivering value for all stakeholders, and our good to great journey continues, capitalizing on science-based customer excellence, ethical advantage. Our clients understand the mission-critical nature of risk-based quality assurance to operate with higher quality, safety and sustainability standards and make their businesses stronger. We are experiencing faster growth for our IT solutions, and we expect that to continue. To continue to deliver sustainable growth and value for shareholders, we'll stay very focused on our virtuous economics, based on the compounding effect year after year of mid-single digit like-for-like revenue growth, margin accretion, strong free cash flow, and of course, disciplined investments in high growth, high margin sectors. Importantly, we believe in the value of accretive, disciplined capital allocation. We pursue the following priorities. Our first priority is, is to support organic growth through capital expenditures and investment in working capital. The second priority is to deliver stable returns for our shareholders through the payment of progressive dividends, and we target a payout ratio of circa 65%. The third priority is to pursue M&A activities that strengthen our portfolio in attractive growth and margin areas, provided, of course, we can deliver good returns. Our fourth priority is to maintain an efficient balance sheet with the flexibility to invest in growth. Our leverage target is 1.3-1.8 net debt to EBITDA, with the potential to return excess capital to shareholders, subject, of course, to our future requirements and prevailing macros. So let me summarize the highlights of our trading statements before taking your questions. Trading in the first four months was slightly stronger than expected, with 7% like-for-like revenue growth at constant currency, benefiting from a broad-based performance. Our pricing initiatives, strong cost controls, and productivity improvements drove a robust margin performance, while our disciplined cash conversions delivered a strong free cash flow. We are on track to deliver our full year guidance at constant currency and the market expectations for 2024, notwithstanding the Forex volatility in many markets in the last few months. Again, thank you for joining our call today, and we'll now answer any question you might have. We will now start the Q&A. If you wish to ask a question, please use the raise hand function at the bottom of your Zoom screen. We'll take our first question from Rory McKenzie of UBS. Please unmute your line and ask your question. Good morning, it's Rory here from UBS. Two questions, please. First- Morning. Firstly, on consumer goods, good morning, André. On consumer goods, as you were describing the strong performance in soft lines and hard lines. ... You spoke about retailers, you know, wanting to restock after last year. Can you talk about if this marks a return to, to steady growth trends for you? Or could this year be, be volatile as you go through periods of, you know, catch up and restocking from clients, and then see slower periods later on? I appreciate you did just increase divisional guidance, but of course, mid-single digits still leaves a range that, that could be, you know, lower than where you're tracking today. And then secondly, good, good growth again in, in World of Energy. Can you talk about what underpins that in terms of, you know, price or volume or new service mix? And again, as you look at the year, does that growth rate look sustainable, given that I know there's you know, still a bit of a catch up in some areas from some of that mobility trend? Thank you. Yeah, I mean, look, I'm not worried about, you know, consumer products. What happened in the last few years was clearly understood by everyone and made sense. I'll just, you know, remind everyone that post-COVID, there was a surge in consumer demand for new products and soft lines and hard lines, and electrical benefited from that. I think, you know, retailers were too bullish with their, you know, forecasting in 2022, because they had not really quantified the big one-off that was a rebound post-COVID on consumer consumptions. And of course, they were worried about, you know, weakening consumer demand, based, you know, on the high unexpected inflation. Now, that was the reason for the slowdown in new product development within Consumer Products, in Hardlines and Softlines, less so in electrical, which obviously benefits from, you know, the greener energy trends. And we know that, you know, the consumption in the world is in a good shape, that inflation is, you know, going down, and that confidence is good. And you know, the confidence in the global economy that we are all sensing is the confidence that we are sensing within our customers. And I think, you know, we're gonna have, you know, a really good momentum over the years. I've given, of course, some long-term guidance for Consumer Products, you remember, at the capital market event, and that's the guidance that I would want you to think not for 24, but for the long term. But as you know, this is, you know, a very strong part of our portfolio. We've created, you know, the softlines and hardlines testing industry with Labtest in 1973. We've got, you know, leadership positions, we have got tremendous technical expertise, and we've got scale and fabulous productivity, and we are never stopping in terms of innovation. When it comes to electrical, look, we don't talk much about electrical, and maybe we should. I mean, this is, you know, one of the major, you know, vertical of Intertek. You know, remember, this is the business we bought from, you know, the one in the US many years ago. It was called the Edison Testing Laboratory. We are the number 1 outside of the US. Inside the US, we are number 2, just behind UL. But our performance is, you know, frankly speaking, world-class. You know, we've never seen any issue in terms of organic growth. And, you know, the performance, you know, that we've delivered with high single digit is very, very commendable. I can tell you that here, we're not seeing any slowdown, because what is driving electrical testing is essentially, of course, innovation, new products, new brands, but greener. You know, if energy is really needed with, you know, appliances and electrical products that are more efficient, right? Of course, you know, this sector is benefiting from energy storage investments, being industrial or consumer products with batteries and, you know, all of that. So, look, I, I'm not worried about consumer goods. The recovery in the first four months was stronger than we expect, which is good, and we are very, very positive about the year. And everybody knows that this is an important recovery because, you know, this is where we have the highest margin in the group. As far as the World of Energy, you know, performance. Look, let's just start with the smallest of the three business, CEA, which is essentially the business we bought a few years ago to be the global leader in terms of independent assurance when it comes to solar energy. Now, solar energy is the fastest growing renewable source of energy. We all know that. It's an unregulated space, and a lot of companies are asking them the questions, you know: Which solar panel should I buy? How should I make it, you know, part of my energy mix management? And CEA, you know, provides both, you know, independent quality inspections and in the manufacturing footprint, i.e., you know, in the factories producing solar panels. But also, they work, you know, with the clients in terms of managing, you know, the quality assurance of the infrastructure they've built. And frankly speaking, you can see that there is growth there, and they continue to do a fantastic job. Transportation Technologies has been obviously challenged for multiple reasons that we talked about in the past. These issues are now, you know, behind us. I think the supply chain of the OEMs is in much better shape. You know, they need to invest in, you know, greener combustion, internal combustion engines and of course, electric vehicles and hybrid, and- ... Thank you. Our next question is from Neil Tyler at Redburn Atlantic. Please unmute your line and ask your question. Yeah, good, good morning, André. Thank you very much. The first question really on the assurance activities, really. I mean, you know, appreciate that outside of your Corporate Assurance division, there are other frequent mentions of assurance work you're doing. I wonder if you could sort of share your thoughts on the, you know, in aggregate, the momentum within those to give a sort of picture, sort of top-down picture of how those are progressing versus the last year or two. And then do you have a view of the sort of proportion of those revenues in aggregate that you would view as sort of repeat annual business? That's the first question. And then the second one, sorry, sort of to call this out, but in government and trade, you know, one of the few areas where sales have declined. I noticed that they've been sort of declining for the last couple of years. So can you share your sort of medium-term perspective on sort of what the strategy is there and how you see that developing over the next few years? Thank you. Yeah, thanks, Neil. I mean, don't be sorry to ask question about GTS. I mean, we are here to talk about all parts of our business. Look, GTS is, you know, an inspection-based business that works with governments. It's called Government and Trade Services, and, you know, that's true that, you know, the performance has been soft over the last few years, 'cause we exited, you know, a contract that we didn't want to renew. Why is GTS slightly lower last year, this year? It's essentially not a volume issue, it's a program mix point. We don't have the same, you know, price points on every single contract, and, and this is what's happening. The volume is good, and, and we're gonna continue to, you know, to make progress. So I'm not worried, and I don't want you to worry about GTS. I mean, your question about assurance is central to what we do with our clients, right? ATIC is, you know, all about risk-based quality assurance, where, you know, we provide end-to-end risk assessment with an assurance, which is an audit of operating procedures, management systems, skills, and behaviors, you know, to make sure that our clients have got an end-to-end visibility on risks within their entire, you know, value chain. And that complements, of course, the, you know, quality control works that we do with testing, inspection, certifications in a high-risk area. I mean, this is the genesis of what we offer to our clients. As I said on the call earlier today, we are the only company to basically talk about risk-based quality assurance through ATIC, and this gives us, of course, an incredible advantage when we talk to clients on a, you know, at a C-suite level. Now, you're right, there are two types of assurance solutions inside the group. There are the business line-agnostic solutions, which is essentially business assurance and assurance, and you've got the business line-specific, you know, solutions. And we report our ATIC, you know, revenue now every single year, so we'll do so at the end of, you know, 2024. There is no question that if you look at the data, and Denis can send you the graph, that assurance has been one of the fastest growing, you know, solutions for Intertek. Because, you know, companies need to increase, you know, focus on risk management, and if anything, COVID has pinpointed the fact that companies didn't have enough focus on the resilience of their value chain end-to-end, et cetera, and so forth. So look, I'm not gonna give you a number for the assurance services for the first four months, because we're gonna disclose it at the end of the year, but this is, you know, continuing to perform very well, and this is obviously at the heart of our competitive advantage. And then we are really, really focused on that, and we know all the drivers. Thank you. Thanks, André. Just to follow up there, within that sort of broader assurance piece, you... Do you have a perspective, or are you able to see how much of it is repeat business, you know, in both, you know, in business agnostic, industry agnostic, and- Yeah, I mean— Industry specific? Yeah, I mean, a couple of things about, you know, your, your question. Sorry, I should have addressed that. My apologies. Number one, you know, we have very sticky customer relationships at Intertek, right? I've talked about it in the past, so customer retention rate is very, very, very high, and it, it's very rare when we lose a client, and usually it's because we don't agree on the price, as you know, we get very focused on, you know, our price, pricing power. Assurance is a fantastic business in terms of stickiness, to your question, because typically, when you do an assurance program, it's a multi-year program, right? So, assurance, and I should not say that because we basically planned for your capability development, so it's, I would say it's, it's very good business. Okay? Great. Thank you very much. Our next question is from Arthur Truslove at Citi. Please unmute your line and ask your question. Good morning, everybody. A couple from me, please. Sure. So first question, please. On the Consumer Products business, obviously good start to the year. How are you expecting organic growth there to progress as the year goes on? Are you expecting it to strengthen in the May and June, and then also July to October or not? Second question is on the margin. You know, I guess, you know, simply put today, Consumer Products has been stronger than expected, which is obviously lab-based, World of Energy, likewise. And therefore, I would expect that to be very positive for operational leverage and therefore margin. But my understanding is you're talking margin down a little bit. So I just wondered, you know, whether I'd understood correctly or not. And then third question, just on the free cash flow. I guess, how confident are you of very strong free cash flow conversion this year, perhaps relative to last year? Thank you. Yeah, I mean, thanks, Arthur. So let's take these questions in reverse order. Free cash flow confidence, super strong. Don't worry about that. Margin, we're not taking the margin down. What we are saying is that, Forex is gonna be, of course, you know, more negative than we thought, and more negative at the operating profit than revenue, 200 versus 200 basis points. But from a constant currency standpoint, which is the way, you know, we look at margin performance, we're not, you know, downgraded. If anything, what we said this morning is, we believe that, you know, the market expectations at actual rate, which is the consensus, we are comfortable with that. And if you do the math, you know, and you include the more adverse Forex compared to our previous guidance, essentially what we're talking about today is a mini upgrade at constant currency, so don't worry about margin. As far as consumer product is concerned, look, we've increased the guidance, you know, to mid-single digit. Mid-single digit is a range, and it's true that, you know, 6.2% is a bit at the upper end of this range. We don't give, you know, forecasts for the next two months or H1 or H2, we give for the full year. But where I sit today, I think we're gonna have a good year. So if I were you, I wouldn't worry about consumer products. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next question is from Suhasini Varanasi at Goldman Sachs. Please unmute your line and ask your question. Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Morning. Just a few from me, please. Good morning. So just one more on consumer products, please. Sorry to go back to that, but it's probably the most interesting division at this point, given the inflection you've seen on growth this year. But that's the one division where margins are well below 2019 levels. So I just wanted to check, given the upgrade to guidance and the strong start to the year, how long do you think it'll take for you to get back to 2019 levels? Just... Is it just one year, or will it take two to three years? That's the first question. The second question is on the building and- I'm gonna answer this one with a smile. Nice try. You know that I'm not gonna give you any date. So Anjo, do you have a more interesting questions for me? Because don't ask me questions where I'm not gonna give you answers. Okay, okay. Well, the, the next one is- And I'm saying it with a smile, with the utmost respect, because you and I know each other for so many years. Let's have fun today. No, of course, of course. Of course. So the second one is on building and construction, please, which seems to have seen a slightly softer growth, this year compared to last year. Can you maybe discuss what you've been seeing? Where has the slowdown been? Yeah. What kind of projects have seen a little bit of delays? Thank you. Yeah, that's a very good question. Thank you. Look, for us, building and construction, on a serious note, is a North American business. You will recall that, you know, we've invested in this business several years ago, anticipating the investments that we made to upgrade the infrastructure in the U.S., public and private, you know, housing and, of course, road and airports, et cetera and so forth. This business has done, you know, very well. You know, if you look at, you know, the performance in 2023 was very, you know, commendable. You know, we had a, you know, a really good mid-single digit performance last year. And what happens in the U.S. is each time there is an election, there is a bit of uncertainty before or after on what kind of incentive the government is gonna put in place. And what we've seen is, you know, on the large projects, large infrastructure projects, of course, some of these projects have lapsed, and we've seen a bit of a slowdown in terms of decisions being made by local or regional authorities to basically invest in larger projects, because there might be some change in terms of incentives or, because, you know, they expect the interest rates to go down. So that's what we are seeing. Am I worried? No. Would I like it to be higher? Of course. But it's a very strong business and, and, and we know that, you know, the, you know, infrastructure bill that has been passed and the Inflation Reduction Act is very significant in terms of, you know, investments moving forward. And I don't know if, if you've seen some of these numbers, but since the Inflation Reduction Act was passed, there were 295, you know, major projects that have been announced. Doesn't mean that they've been approved and planned. This is basically the intention, right? And this represents $118 billion of investment in the private sectors, and this is a quote from your, from your bank, so the data is really correct. So this is, you know... this is a good growth area for us, and of course, it's a bit slow at the moment, but I'm not worried. Thank you. Last question from me, please. Obviously- Of course. Very strong start to the year, 7% organic growth, and you are, you upgraded the guidance in 3 out of the 5 divisions, and notwithstanding the small downgrade in 1 division, which is Industry and Infrastructure, you're also facing easier comparables going into second half of the year on organic growth. So it definitely feels as though there's some upside to your group guidance, which is still at mid-single digit organic growth. Just wanted to get your thoughts on, okay, is it just the usual level of caution and conservatism because it's the beginning of the year, or is there anything else that we, we should be worried about? Thank you. I mean, you know me so well, so you got the answer to your question. And the other thing I would say is, mid-single digit is a range, right? Got it. Got it. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question is from Sylvia Barker at J.P. Morgan. Please unmute your line and ask your question. Thank you. Hi, good morning. Morning. A couple from me, please. Firstly, maybe going back to the margin, on consumer, just could you maybe talk a little bit about the different parts of that? So soft lines historically has been the highest margin, but electricals has been catching up over time. So could you maybe just update us on where the margins stand relative for, for the sub-businesses within that division? And then maybe within connected, UL clearly talks about higher margins within industrial versus consumer within electrical. And it seems that it's the more industrial end markets, maybe they're growing faster for you at the moment. So within the electrical piece, do you think that you're actually seeing kind of further margin growth? That'll be interesting. And then finally, on second question, rather, on business assurance, is there regional kind of skew at the moment? Clearly, there's been a lot more regulation, probably in focus within Europe, but could you maybe just talk a little bit about the regional split of that growth? Thank you. Sorry, what was the exact last question? Can you be more precise? Sorry, for business assurance, just whether that's driven more, by Europe or EMEA versus other regions? Oh. I guess if it's- Okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay. No, I mean, on the last question, no, the BA growth is very broad-based. Just, you know, to remind everyone, Intertek, you know, as a company, has always been very strong in Asia, in emerging markets, and in North America. As you know, Europe is not our biggest business, right? So, the European, you know, BA business is doing very, very well. But the growth in terms of quantum, right, comes from, you know, the India, you know, the China, the US, all the markets where, you know, we are very, very big. As far as your question on UL, look, like you did, I looked at the statement, and I don't understand why their margin is a problem on consumer products. I don't know, maybe they don't have the same definition. I think they put some hardlines and softlines numbers in that. It's not pure electrical. I mean, I can tell you that, of course, now that they disclose their performance, I can do side-by-side comparison, and I talk to my electrical teams, and yeah, of course, you know, industrial is doing very well, but our consumer product in electrical is flying, right? And the margin is very good. So I'm not sure I understand what the issue here there. You should ask them. As far as you know, the margin, I mean, you're right. I mean, soft lines, hard lines have always been the highest margin within consumer product, but you're right. Electrical, given the fact that, you know, it's steadily making progress year on year, is catching up. But we still have some room, so hard line, soft line is still the highest margin. Thank you. Okay, thanks for that. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please use the raise hand function at the bottom of your Zoom screen. Our next question is from James Rose at Barclays. Please unmute your line and ask your question. Hi there, James here. Thanks for taking my question. Yeah. Got one on North America infrastructure projects. I mean, there's lots of those going on, although those are at a very early stage for now. At what stage of the project developments do you think the demand will really pick up for your particular suite of services? And then within the business you have as well, is there any particular sort of exposures within infrastructure we should be particularly aware of? It's a really, really, you know, good question. This is, you know, why I'm super excited about, you know, the IRA, and what it means for onshoring, essentially, in the North American business. Let's just start, you know, with our business model in the United States, right? I've talked about B&C, which is a building construction, quality assurance, you know, organization, that essentially gets involved, when the building starts, right? Foundational work and all the way till the end, because we do the quality assurance of the, you know, the building, you know, cycle. We will be involved slightly upstream in terms of quality consulting, and we call it, you know, looking at, you know, the ecosystems of what's being built, because, you know, companies need to make sure they've got the right safety, you know, protocol and standards in their buildings or bridges or airport. But also, the greener side of, you know, things is very, very important. The other area where we are, you know, highly, you know, present is with Moody. Essentially, in Moody, you would remember, is a leader in terms of engineering-based inspection, has been traditionally involved in oil and gas upstream infrastructure, offshore platforms, you know, pipelines, refineries, you know, power plant. There is no question that what we do for this last project is we basically do the quality assurance of the high-tech, you know, assets that basically an offshore platform or refinery would basically, you know, build, i.e., we work with the suppliers at the refinery, you know, orders, you know, from to basically make sure that when the equipment arrives in the factory, we are basically giving the assurance that, you know, that turbine or that piece of equipment is gonna work. So that obviously happens, you know, at a later stage of the project, but, you know, it is very, very, very, very, very significant. The other thing that, you know, we are seeing, going back to discussions on industrial, I mean, all these, you know, investment that we are seeing in terms of, you know, battery plants, you know, power plants, you know, need some electrification. And this is where the industrial, you know, division of our, you know, electrical business in North America is extremely well positioned. And lastly, you know, we do have, of course, the opportunity with our business assurance, we, you know, operations to offer some ISO solutions. So essentially, we have, you know, a very comprehensive business model in North America. And I wouldn't want to forget, you know, Caleb Brett, which, you know, when, you know, you know, a refinery has been built or when, you know, people have invested in hydrogen, you know, power plants, or when, you know, they want to basically put a higher level of greener fuels in their supply chain, of course, we are there to do the testing and inspections when the operation is up and running. So we are very much involved when it starts being built, i.e., the project need to be approved, the foundation needs to be, if you want, in place, and the financing needs to be in place. But the opportunity for us is significant because we have the business model with our business lines I just explained to take advantage of all these opportunities. you know, we are, you know, we are very, very, you know, focused on that. We have a dedicated, you know, multifunctional, multi-business line teams, you know, solely focused on that in North America, because, look, it is gonna change the way energy is produced and consumed in the largest economy in the world, the U.S., right? That's great. Thanks very much for the insight. This concludes our Q&A. I'll now hand over to André Lacroix for closing remarks. Please go ahead. Well, thank you very much for your time today, and appreciate the discussion. So, we are obviously available if you have any more questions, Denny is on standby, and I wish you all a very good day. Thank you.