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Smiths Group (SMIN), James Halstead (JHD), Apple (AAPL) and Tritax Big Box (BBOX)
Smiths Group (SMIN) plans to break up its business by getting rid of half its divisions after the FTSE 100 conglomerate came under pressure from activist investor Engine Capital.
Management wants to sell the Smiths Interconnect business and hopes to announce a transaction by the end of 2025. After that, the plan is for Smiths Detection to also be sold or demerged. That would leave the group focused on industrial technologies through its John Crane and Flex-Tek businesses.
Engine - which owns around 2 per cent of Smiths - called in a letter earlier this month for the group to be broken up to solve the “structural issues” which meant it was “challenging for Smiths to ever be properly valued in the public market”.
Smiths also announced a big increase in its share buyback programme, with another £350mn to be returned this year on top of the £150mn previously announced.
The plan was received well by the market, with the shares up 10 per cent in early trading. CA
Read more: US 'animal spirits' are spilling over into London
James Halstead’s first-half sales down
Flooring company James Halstead (JHD) flagged mixed trading across its markets as it confirmed in a half-year update that its revenue was lower than in the previous year and pre-tax profit was “comparable”.
The company pointed to a strong performance in the Middle East and the Americas in the six months to 31 December, but flagged weaker consumer confidence after the budget in its core UK market. Management said that UK distributor clients had been destocking and domestic sales had been constrained by “lower confidence leading to customers revising their capital spend and deferring renewal”.
The board’s annual profit expectations are in line with market forecasts. CA
Find out why we’re bullish on James Halstead
iPhone sales slowdown at the end of 2024
In a Q1 trading update, Apple (AAPL) revealed that quarterly revenues had increased by 4 per cent to $124bn (£99.83), even though sales of iPhones dipped at the end of last year.
Sales in China remain a cause for concern, and there are anxieties attached to the prospect of trade sanctions under the new Trump administration. The President has called for tariffs of up to 60 per cent on products made in China, where Apple does much of its manufacturing.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook has also faced criticism over the group’s apparent tardiness in rolling out AI services in any non-English language, although events this week linked to the DeepSeek launch may be forcing an industry-wide rethink on AI capital allocations — we shall see.
Apple’s board of directors has also declared a cash dividend of $0.25 per share. MR
Read more: Why Apple deserves to be worth more than its rivals
Tritax Big Box disposes of £306mn worth of assets
Tritax Big Box (BBOX) successfully disposed of £306mn of assets at above book value in the 12 months ended 31 December, according to a trading update published this morning.
The logistics specialist bought fellow listed player, UKCM, last year. The disposals included £181.2mn of non-strategic UKCM assets. A further £150mn of UKCM assets are currently under offer.
Tritax’s loan to value has also improved to 29 per cent, compared to 32 per cent. NV
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