FTSE 100 company Smiths Group is selling its Detection division to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners in a £2 billion deal.
The price tag equates to 16.3 times operating profit and 12.5 times EBITDA for the year to 31st July 2025.
Smiths expects to pocket around £1.85bn in net cash once the sale completes, after the usual adjustments.
The move is the second big portfolio shake-up this year, following the agreed sale of Smiths Interconnect, and together they mark a clear pivot away from a mixed conglomerate towards a tighter industrial-engineering group focused on flow management and thermal solutions.
The business has been explicit since its January 2025 strategy update that it wanted to separate both Detection and Interconnect to “unlock value” and sharpen its core.
Detection is a major security and threat-detection operation – supplying screening and detection tech used in aviation, borders and other high-security settings – but it sits outside the industrial platforms Smiths wants to build around.
After running a competitive process, the board decided a cash sale at this valuation was more attractive than the alternative route it had flagged, which was the plan to demerge Detection into a standalone listed business.
The company already announced a £1bn share buyback in November and it says a “large portion” of the Detection sale proceeds will also be returned to shareholders.
The deal still needs consultation with the French works council tied to Smiths Detection France, plus regulatory clearances, and Smiths expects completion in the second half of 2026. Until then, the division will continue trading as normal.
Roland Carter, chief executive of Smiths, said: “Today we have reached another significant milestone for Smiths, with the agreement to sell Smiths Detection to CVC for an enterprise value of £2bn.
“This builds on our recently announced sale of Smiths Interconnect and demonstrates strong execution against the strategic actions we set out in January centred on value creation.
“We are focusing Smiths as a premium industrial engineering company specialising in flow management and thermal solutions, and today’s announcement positions us strongly to deliver enhanced growth and returns.
“We thank our Smiths Detection colleagues for their significant contribution to Smiths and their help in reaching this milestone.”