Smiths Group Agrees to Sell Smiths Detection in £2 Billion Deal
Smiths Group plc announces that it has entered into an agreement for the proposed sale of Smiths Detection to funds advised by CVC Capital Partners. The Proposed Transaction values Smiths Detection at an enterprise value of £2.0bn, representing 16.3x headline operating profit of £122m and 12.5x headline EBITDA of £160m for the financial year ending 31 July 2025. Based on customary adjustments, Smiths expects to receive net cash proceeds of approximately £1.85bn.
The Proposed Transaction, in combination with the recently announced sale of Smiths Interconnect, represents significant further progress on the strategic actions announced in January 2025. This repositions Smiths as a focused, high-performance, industrial engineering company, and delivers significant value for all stakeholders.
Subject to completion of information and consultation processes with the works council of Smiths Detection France SAS, and customary regulatory approvals, completion of the Proposed Transaction is expected in the second half of calendar year 2026.
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 £2.0bn. 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.”
Proposed Transaction background and rationale
As announced on 31 January 2025, Smiths is committed to a strategy designed to unlock significant value, enhance returns to shareholders and deliver above market growth over the medium term.
A core element of this strategy is to focus Smiths as a high-performance industrial engineering company. Smiths supports customers in attractive energy, industrial and construction end markets underpinned by structural megatrends, and is well positioned for continued growth and margin expansion.
To achieve this, Smiths announced plans to separate both Smiths Detection and Smiths Interconnect in January 2025. The sale of Smiths Interconnect to Molex Electronic Technologies Holdings, LLC was announced on 16 October 2025. With the Proposed Transaction, Smiths is now in the process of executing both major portfolio actions outlined in the January strategic update.
