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Smiths Group PLC on Wednesday said it will launch a new share buyback worth £1 billion, as it reported trading in line with expectations in its financial first quarter. London-based Smiths Group is an engineering firm operating in the energy, security & defence, space & aerospace and general industrial sectors. Smiths says organic revenue from continuing operations was 3.5% higher in the three months that ended October 31, without providing the actual revenue figures. The increase excludes Smiths Interconnect, which it last month announced it would sell to Molex Electronic Technologies Holdings LLC for £1.3 billion. By remaining division, Smiths said John Crane suffered a marginal organic revenue decline in the first quarter, against high single-digit-percentage growth a year before. Flex-Tek had flat organic revenue in the quarter, due to weakness in the US residential construction market. Smiths Detection recorded double-digit-percentage organic revenue growth in the recent quarter, continuing momentum from the previous financial year, and has a strong order book, Smiths said. As a result, Smiths backed its annual group outlook, predicting organic revenue growth between 4% and 6%. To return most of the proceeds from the Smiths Interconnect sale, Smiths said its board has approved a new £1 billion share buyback programme. The new buyback will start once the current £500 million programme is completed in December. Smiths has completed £464 million of the current buyback so far. The new programme is targeted to be substantially completed by the end of calendar 2026. Smiths noted that it has returned £1.8 billion to shareholders over the past four years. Smiths Group shares were down 0.3% to 2,438.00 pence early Wednesday in London but are up 44% over the past 12 months. The company has a market capitalisation of £7.93 billion. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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