ZURICH (Reuters) - The world's largest testing and inspection company SGS lowered its growth outlook on Thursday and posted a smaller-than-expected rise in first-half net profit hit by weak demand in its minerals services segment.
SGS and peers, such as Britain's Intertek and France's Bureau Veritas, are currently grappling with sluggish growth in Europe and a cyclical downturn in the mining sector.
The Swiss firm, whose activities span from food and toy safety tests to anti-corruption certification and vehicle inspection, said it expected organic growth of "around 6 percent" for 2014, at the bottom of its targeted range of 6-9 percent growth per year.
Net profit at the group rose 6.3 percent to 255 million Swiss francs (165 million pounds), short of a forecast for 283 million in a Reuters poll.
Sales were up 5.3 percent at 2.8 billion Swiss francs, driven by its oil, gas and chemicals segment. But sales for its minerals unit slumped 6 percent.
SGS said it expected spending in mineral exploration to only slightly recover in 2015 and had therefore started further restructuring in the business.
Last year, SGS said it would not be able to meet ambitious growth targets set in 2010, including almost doubling sales by 2014. It is, however, pursuing an active acquisition strategy, snapping up small, highly specialised rivals almost every month.
(Reporting by Alice Baghdjian; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)