LONDON (Reuters) - Kentz Corporation (>> Kentz Corporation Limited), the British engineering firm that is the target of bid interest from rivals, delivered an upbeat outlook for the industry in its first half results on Tuesday.

"Across the global engineering and construction space, many companies are indicating a more cautious outlook for the future than previously observed. However, the markets in which Kentz operates continue to be busy and the first half of 2013 has seen one of the most active periods of bidding ever experienced by Kentz," it said.

The company reported pre-tax profit up 3 percent at $52.7 million (33.8 million pounds) and raised its dividend by 20 percent to 6.6 cents.

On August 19, the company said it had rejected takeover approaches from larger London-listed rival AMEC (>> AMEC plc) and Germany's M+W Group, saying both undervalued the company.

(Reporting by Andrew Callus; Editing by Clara Ferreira-Marques)

Stocks treated in this article : Kentz Corporation Limited, AMEC plc