Published: October 17, 2025 at 9:00 am
FTSE 100 firm Smiths Group plc has agreed a £1.3 billion disposal.
US electronics firm Molex, part of industrial conglomerate Koch, has agreed the mammoth deal for the London-headquartered company’s Smiths Interconnect subsidiary.
The cash deal – expected to complete in the second half of fiscal year 2026 – represents 15.1x headline EBITDA of £86.1m for the fiscal year 2025.
Smiths said it was a notable step forward in its strategy to become a more focused industrial engineering company. It had come under pressure from US activist investor Engine Capital to break up the business. A demerger or sale of Smiths Detection, which makes baggage-screening scanners used in airports, will now be explored.