Smiths Group H2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
September 23, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Organic revenue grew 8.9% in FY25, marking four consecutive years of growth and driving a 60 bp expansion in operating profit margin, both ahead of guidance.
  • Positive Sentiment: Progress is being made on the strategic separation of Smiths Interconnect and Smiths Detection, with the acceleration plan on track to deliver full benefits by FY27.
  • Positive Sentiment: Smiths deployed disciplined capital allocation through three accretive acquisitions, an enhanced £500 m share buyback (80 % completed), and a 5.1 % dividend increase, returning £460 m to shareholders in FY25.
  • Neutral Sentiment: For FY26, Smiths expects 4–6 % organic revenue growth with continuing margin expansion and mid-90 % cash conversion, underpinned by a strong order book despite challenging macro conditions.
  • Negative Sentiment: John Crane faced operational challenges and a January cyber incident that slowed recovery in the second half, though sequential improvements in machining and testing metrics were recorded.
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Earnings Conference Call
Smiths Group H2 2025
00:00 / 00:00

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Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today, I'll open with a reminder of our strategic actions that we announced in January and a few highlights of our fiscal year 2025 performance before handing over to Julian to walk through the numbers in more detail. I'll then come back to you to provide an update on our strategy. As always, we'll have plenty of time for questions at the end. I would like to start by saying how pleased I am with the excellent progress we have made this year, operationally, financially, and strategically. We are extending our track record of consistent financial performance and advancing the strategic plans we announced earlier this year to reposition Smiths Group and deliver significant value for all stakeholders.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Turning to our strong financial performance, which came in ahead of our twice-raised guidance, fiscal year 2025 marks our fourth consecutive year of organic revenue growth, with group organic revenue up 8.9%, ahead of our 6 to 8% guidance. We expanded operating profit margins by 60 basis points at the top end of the guided range. We deployed capital in a disciplined and dynamic way, with three accretive acquisitions, an enhanced share buyback, alongside a 5.1% dividend increase, marking 74 consecutive years of dividend payments. In January, we announced a number of strategic actions to unlock portfolio value and enhance returns. We are progressing the separation of Smiths Interconnect and Smiths Detection, and reflecting this, Smiths Interconnect is reported as discontinued operations in our four-year results. The acceleration plan is progressing well. Initial benefits are being delivered, and we remain on track for the full benefits in fiscal year 2027.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

We are well positioned for fiscal year 2026 with a strong order book and expect 4 to 6% organic revenue growth with continuing margin expansion. We enter the next phase of our growth journey from both a position of financial strength and strategic clarity. The strategic actions we announced this year mark a pivotal moment for Smiths Group. We set out plans to be a focused industrial engineering company centered on high-performance technologies in flow management and thermal solutions. Our businesses are customer-centric, hold market-leading positions, and operate in structurally growing markets. They have a high-quality financial profile with a strong through-cycle track record and with ample potential for above-market growth. This sharper focus, combined with disciplined capital allocation, positions us to deliver superior shareholder value through consistent execution, operational and financial performance, and strategic delivery.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Turning to fiscal year 2025 performance, keeping our people safe is our number one priority, and I'm pleased to see our safety record improve this year with our recordable incident rate being the lowest for several years. We delivered strong financial results with growth across all our key metrics. A great performance when one considers the impact of the cyber incident, particularly felt in John Crane, and the ongoing challenging macro and tariff backdrop. We invested organically as well, spending £121 million on acquisitions to support and enhance future growth. We also increased returns to shareholders and are now 80% through our half-billion pound share buyback program. Together with dividends, we have returned £460 million to shareholders in the year, taking the total to £1.7 billion over the past four years. With that, I'll now hand over to Julian to talk through the numbers in more detail.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

Thank you, Roland, and good morning. I'm pleased to present our fiscal year 2025 financial results, which extend our track record of consistent performance delivery. Organic revenue growth for the group, comprising all four businesses, was up 8.9%, ahead of the already twice-raised guidance of 6 to 8% growth. Reported revenue increased 6.5%, including a 1.4% contribution from acquisitions in Flex-Tek, partly offset by adverse foreign exchange. Operating profit grew 13.1% on an organic basis and 10.3% on a reported basis. Operating profit margin expanded 60 basis points to 17.4% on both an organic and reported basis, at the top end of our guidance of 40 to 60 basis points. Earnings per share increased 14.8%, driven by the strong operating profit performance, supplemented by acquisitions and the benefit of our enhanced share buyback program.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

Return on capital employed was up 170 basis points to 18.1%, driven by profit growth and our continuing focus on efficient capital allocation. We achieved strong operating cash conversion of 99%. As a result of the planned separation, Smiths Interconnect is now reported as discontinued operations, with its assets and liabilities classified as held for sale. This means that on a continuing operations basis, organic revenue grew 7.2% and operating profit grew 8.5%, with an operating profit margin of 17.3%. In line with our progressive dividend policy, we are recommending a final dividend of £0.3177, resulting in a total full-year dividend of £0.46, a 5.1% increase. Now turning to the results in more detail and starting with organic revenue growth.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

Delivering consistent growth above our markets is a key focus for us, and we've now delivered four consecutive years of organic revenue growth, averaging over 7% per year across this time period. This growth has been underpinned by the strong performance of our portfolio of leading brands, our focus on commercial excellence and innovation, and new product development. Strong revenue growth translated into even stronger operating profit growth, with a 60 basis point margin expansion to 17.4%. Growth was driven by operating leverage, particularly in Smiths Interconnect and Smiths Detection, continued price discipline more than offsetting inflation, and efficiency and productivity savings, which delivered 20 basis points of margin improvement. This included benefits from the Smiths Excellence Continuous Improvement Program and initial benefits from the acceleration plan.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

Offsetting this was a 50 basis point negative effect from mix, with higher growth coming from Smiths Detection and some negative product mix, mostly within Flex-Tek. Earnings per share grew very strongly at 14.8%, driven by the organic profit growth, accretive acquisitions, the share buyback, and lower tax and interest charges. Constant currency earnings per share grew 19.6%. Cash generation was very strong at £576 million, representing a 99% conversion, reflecting disciplined cash and working capital management. CapEx was £80 million, £12 million higher than depreciation and amortization, but lower than originally guided, with a good amount reflecting higher investment in automation capacity and testing in John Crane. Finally, we generated £336 million of free cash flow, a conversion rate of 58%. Generating free cash flow remains a key focus for us as we execute our strategic plan. Turning now to the businesses.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

John Crane delivered organic revenue growth of 3% against a strong prior year comparator of 9.8% growth. Growth was led by original equipment, whilst aftermarket, having been more affected by the cyber incident, recovered in the fourth quarter. Second half growth was impacted by operational challenges associated with upgrades to our machining and testing capabilities and exacerbated by a longer than anticipated recovery from the January cyber incident. However, we saw sequential quarterly improvement, with fourth quarter growth of 3.9%. Notable contract wins in the second half included a large-scale retrofit energy project in the Middle East and a large managed reliability program in Asia. In June, John Crane launched its coaxial separation dry gas seal, helping customers cut emissions, boost reliability, and lower costs. John Crane operating profit grew 6.3% on an organic basis, with margin expanding 80 basis points to 23.8%.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

This margin expansion reflected productivity and cost efficiency improvements, price, and initial savings from the acceleration plan. Looking ahead, healthy market demand, strong order intake, alongside improved execution, supports our positive outlook for fiscal year 2026. Now turning to Flex-Tek. Organic revenue grew 4.4%, with a marked strengthening in performance in the second half. The acquisitions of Modular Metal, Wattco, and Duckpack added a further 5.4% to growth. Flex-Tek's industrial segment grew 4% despite challenging conditions in U.S. construction, reflecting increased demand for heat kits and flexible ducting products and new customer acquisitions. Revenue in the industrial heat segment was flat year on year, reflecting the phasing of a large industrial contract, which is due to conclude in the first half of fiscal year 2026. The business is well positioned for future wins, strengthened by the acquisition of Wattco.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

A recent highlight includes a contract to supply electric heaters for a low-carbon electrofuel project in North America. Aerospace grew 6.3%, supported by a strong order book, reflecting ongoing aircraft build programs and renewed long-term agreements that position the business well for the future. Operating margin was 19.5%, down versus the prior year's strong comparator, which benefited from higher margin industrial heat contracts. This underlying performance reflected positive pricing and efficiency savings, a positive contribution from acquisitions of 20 basis points, offset by mix impact. In the fourth quarter, we identified a non-material balance sheet overstatement at a standalone U.S. industrial site, which had an £8 million in-year impact on headline operating profit and a £15 million impact on statutory profit relating to prior years. This issue was isolated to a single site, has been independently investigated, and is now fully resolved. Looking forward, the U.S.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

construction market remains subdued, although we are well positioned to take advantage from its recovery should mortgage rates moderate and given the meaningful U.S. housing inventory deficit. For aerospace, the strong order book underpins a healthy demand for the coming year. Moving to Smiths Detection, revenue increased 15.2% organically, and we successfully converted a strong order book into revenue in both original equipment and aftermarket. We delivered significant growth in aviation, with strong demand for checkpoint CT scanners, where we continue to secure a good win rate. Smiths Detection has now sold around 1,800 CTX products globally and is the first to receive the up to two liters recertification in the UK and the EU. It is anticipated that the global upgrade program will continue with the current level of cabin baggage activity into fiscal year 2026, along with the associated longer-term aftermarket revenue stream.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

The business is well positioned for the next upgrade cycle in whole baggage screening, supported by the first X-ray diffraction-based system in the aviation sector. With four units already in operation and regulatory certification underway, this innovation marks a significant step forward in detection technology and reinforces our leadership in the sector. Other detection systems delivered improved performance in the second half, with growth of 5.2% following a first-half decline on a strong comparator. The business had significant contract wins, particularly in ports and borders, including for large mobile scanners for customs and road cargo in the Americas. Looking ahead, a growing focus on border security is expected to drive growth. Operating profit grew 23.3%, and operating margin expanded 80 basis points, reflecting the good operating leverage, improved pricing, a positive mix effect, and efficiency savings.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

Underscoring the business's commitment to innovation, our ICMOR automated prohibitive items detection system became the first AI-driven platform to receive regulatory approval for live deployment, now implemented in Schiphol Airport. Looking ahead, our multi-year order book remains strong, supporting a positive outlook for fiscal year 2026. Growth will continue to be supported by the aviation upgrade program, albeit at a more moderated pace. Finally, Smiths Interconnect increased sales by 22.5% organically. All business units grew, with particular strength in the semiconductor test business, where we achieved large wins, particularly in high-speed GPU and AI programs. This performance reflected the strength of our product innovation, most recently the DaVinci Generation 5 high-speed test socket, designed to test advanced chips used in AI, data centers, and computer processing. Aerospace and defense revenue grew 15.1%, with strong demand for our differentiated technology in fiber optic, radio frequency, and connector products.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

Here, Smiths Interconnect launched the Easy Coax Interposer connector for high-value aerospace and defense applications, enabling secure, precise, and reliable communications in systems like satellites and advanced radar. Operating profit was up 57.2%, with margin expanding 390 basis points to 17.8% as a result of the notably higher volumes, as well as pricing, positive mix, and significant benefits from efficiency programs. As part of the drive to maximize value through the separation process of Smiths Interconnect, we have agreed the sale of its U.S. subsystem business. A non-cash impairment on disposal of £30 million was recorded. Strong market conditions, combined with key program wins, underpin our growth expectations for fiscal year 2026. We take a disciplined approach to our use of capital. In fiscal year 2025, we continue to demonstrate consistency in line with our framework. Organically, we invested £219 million in CapEx and RD&E, which includes customer-related engineering.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

We invested £121 million in value accretive acquisitions in Flex-Tek at attractive multiples and higher margins. We increased our total dividend by 5.1% to 46 pence per share, and we paid £152 million in dividends in the year. We have now executed £398 million of our £500 million enhanced buyback program, which is on track to complete by the end of the calendar year. Overall, we have returned £1.7 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and buybacks over the last four years. We did all of this whilst maintaining a strong balance sheet, with net debt to EBITDA ending the year at 0.6 times. Our disciplined approach to capital allocation, combined with a clear focus on sustainable value creation, is designed to maximize long-term returns and drive shareholder value.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

We will continue to prioritize disciplined investment for organic and inorganic growth and deliver enhanced returns to shareholders whilst maintaining a strong and efficient balance sheet. First, we are committed to supporting innovation and expect to invest 3% to 4% of revenue in RD&E, enabling new product development and commercialization. Second, value accretive acquisitions. We will continue to pursue disciplined acquisitions in core and adjacent markets, augmenting our organic growth and strengthening our competitive position. Third, a progressive dividend policy. We balance the cash flow needs of the business with our commitment to deliver consistent and meaningful returns to shareholders. Fourth, returning excess cash to shareholders. Where we generate surplus cash, we will return it to shareholders through share buybacks or other appropriate mechanisms, ensuring capital is deployed efficiently.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

We intend to maintain an investment-grade credit rating, and we will balance this alongside our desire to have an efficient balance sheet. Our credit rating is underpinned by our strong and consistent financial track record, leading market positions, and significant share of recurring revenue. As we progress the separation of Smiths Interconnect and Smiths Detection, we remain committed to returning a large portion of disposal proceeds to shareholders. The scale of this return will be determined once we have clarity on the timing and magnitude of the proceeds. Importantly, this decision will be made in the context of our broader capital allocation priorities: organic investment, acquisition pipeline, dividend policy, and leverage. Finally, let me take you through our outlook for fiscal year 2026 before handing you back to Roland. We expect organic revenue growth on a continuing operations basis of 4 to 6%, noting the strong first quarter comparator.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

This outlook reflects the strength of our order book, as well as the ongoing macro environment, with tariffs and increased geopolitical risks causing market uncertainty. In John Crane, growth is supported by a strong order book, solid momentum, and improving operational delivery. For Flex-Tek, our outlook reflects a continued subdued view on U.S. construction, balanced against a strong aerospace order book. Smiths Detection will continue to grow, albeit at a moderated pace, supported by the aviation upgrade program. We expect continuing margin expansion, driven by operating leverage, benefits from the acceleration plan, and ongoing efficiencies through Smiths Excellence. We expect cash conversion to be around the mid-90% range, reflecting continued investment for growth and strong underlying cash generation.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

In summary, while the external environment is challenging, our strategic positioning, operational discipline, and our strong order book give us confidence in delivering growth, margin expansion, and robust cash flow in fiscal year 2026. With that, let me hand back to Roland.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Thank you, Julian. Firstly, I'll give a brief update on the separation processes. Then I'll turn to Smiths businesses and the opportunity for continued growth and margin expansion. I'll end with our purpose, people, and culture of high performance. We are fully focused on executing the strategic actions that will enhance returns to our shareholders and position Smiths Group for long-term success. We announced the separation of Smiths Interconnect and Smiths Detection earlier this year, and are progressing these with pace and purpose, balancing value maximization with execution certainty. We continue to expect to announce a transaction in relation to Smiths Interconnect by the end of the calendar year, with completion anticipated in 2026. For Smiths Detection, we are progressing both the sale and demerger options ahead of a decision on the preferred route. Work streams are underway internally for both businesses to set them up for the separations.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Following the separations, Smiths Group will be a focused industrial engineering company specializing in high-performance technologies in flow management and thermal solutions, with leading positions in these growing market segments, aligned with long-term structural megatrends. Our competitive advantage stems from our leading brands and engineering capabilities, our targeted investment in innovation, and our product development and commercialization to meet customer needs. We have valued customer relationships based on our customized technologies, products, and solutions, with more than 70% aftermarket recurring or repeatable revenue. Our businesses have high-performance cultures centered on safety, our values, innovation, and excellence. They have a strong financial profile of sustainable growth, with high returns and good cash generation, as well as organic and inorganic expansion opportunities. Empowered decision-making across our businesses ensures we remain focused on supporting customers to capture growth opportunities and deliver attractive and resilient growth with high returns.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

We operate a lean corporate center, delivering core competencies including strategy, capital allocation, M&A, and compliance. Here, we also present Smiths Group's pro forma financial metrics. Smiths Group generated £1.95 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2025, with a pro forma operating profit margin of 19.6% and a 22.8% return on capital employed. We operate in the broad end markets of energy, industrial, and construction, with 36% of revenue in energy, 38% in industrial, and 26% in construction. With our strategic positions in these markets, we are aligned to some of the most powerful structural megatrends shaping the global economy: energy security and transition, resource efficiency, and industrial productivity and sustainability that underpin long-term growth. These markets are expected to grow at a 4 to 5% CAGR over the next decade.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Drilling down further into the subsegments of these markets, we are typically positioned in faster growth areas, including flow control, HVAC, and industrial process heat. In energy, our mechanical seals enhance reliability across the oil and gas value chain, where we are seeing robust demand for traditional energy, as well as increasing opportunities in new energy segments such as CCUS, hydrogen, and biofuels. For industrial markets, the rising demand for process efficiency and emission reduction also supports growth in our flow control business. Aerospace continues to perform strongly with new aircraft build programs supporting demand for our fluid conveyance products, and investment in industrial heat electrification is providing significant potential upside for our process heat portfolio. The construction market growth fundamentals remain strong given the U.S. housing inventory deficit and our deep customer relationships and growing U.S.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

footprint, positioning us well to capture future demand in this highly fragmented market despite some short-term market challenges. Across all market segments, our solutions help customers reduce emissions, improve efficiency, and use fewer raw materials, delivering both sustainability and performance. In summary, we are excited about the opportunities in our markets to deliver long-term, consistent, and sustainable growth. Our aim is to continue to deliver above-market growth over the medium term, underpinned by a resilient and recurring revenue base. This provides a strong foundation for sustainable performance. Our enhanced medium-term financial targets announced in March reflect our plans and strategic initiatives for above-market growth and include leveraging our installed base, brand reputation, customer intimacy, and leading product expertise to deepen relationships with customers and expand our share of wallet.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Commercial excellence, we will continue to enhance our operational processes to deliver exceptional customer service, enhancing customer value, incumbency, and retention versus peers. Innovation, new product development, and commercialization are key to sustaining growth. As examples, John Crane this year launched a new coaxial separation dry gas seal and is scaling digital solutions including Sense Monitor and Turbo. Market adjacencies, we continue to target higher growth and higher margin subsegments, geographies, products, and customers, both organically and through targeted acquisitions. This multifaceted approach ensures that we remain well positioned to outperform in our markets over the medium term. Let's look at what we're doing in Flex-Tek, where we delivered robust growth in our construction business in fiscal year 2025, despite challenging U.S. market conditions.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Building on the strength of our portfolio, we are leveraging our flexible duct product platform to drive deeper and wider penetration through our distribution channels and are adding new customers. We saw increased demand for heat kits, with notable growth in key accounts, illustrating the importance of customer intimacy and higher performing products. Our innovation remains a core growth driver. During the year, we launched the Blue Series duct system, a redesigned sealed metal duct system that sets a new standard in performance and is already contributing to revenue. In our heat business, another launch this year supports ultra-low carbon emissions fuel with electric heaters that are being tailored for a cutting-edge electrofuel project. Both are great examples of how our innovative approach leads to new product design, which solves a key customer challenge. Our organic growth strategy is augmented by a disciplined and value accretive approach to M&A.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Acquisitions since 2018 supported a more than 13% CAGR in both revenue and operating profit at Flex-Tek, alongside a 60 basis point margin uplift. This year's acquisitions, Wattco, Modular Metal, and Duckpack, strengthen our capabilities in heat transfer technologies and broaden our reach in U.S. construction. These acquisitions also allow us to scale into adjacent markets with our existing product portfolio. Adding new metal ducting businesses this year has increased our addressable market for our flexible ducting products by opening up new geographies and customers. They are already contributing to growth and margin uplift, and we expect further benefits as we scale and integrate these businesses. For fiscal year 2026, we expect the construction market to remain subdued, although we will continue to drive the business forward to deliver against this backdrop.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Turning to margin, our journey to our medium-term target of 21% to 23% is supported by a series of structural and tactical initiatives, a combination of operational discipline, cost optimization, and portfolio focus. First, operating leverage, actively driving a higher contribution margin as we grow revenue, for example, through price and product mix. Second, delivering efficiency savings and productivity improvements through Smiths Excellence. This year, through our Smiths Excellence Academy, we expanded our lean and Six Sigma programs to reinforce our high-performance culture and scale operational best practice globally. Third, implementing our acceleration program, which is on track for £40 million to £45 million annualized benefits in fiscal year 2027 and beyond, for a total of £60 million to £65 million of costs, whilst ensuring central costs remain at 1.5% to 1.7% of revenue. Two-thirds of the costs and benefits relate to the retained businesses.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Finally, evolving our product portfolio towards higher margin products and market subsegments, including targeting a greater share of aftermarket, repeat, or recurring revenue. Here, we show how operational excellence is supporting both revenue growth and margin expansion. Through our acceleration plan, we are simplifying, standardizing, and automating core processes across engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain functions in John Crane, including investment in advanced manufacturing technologies. We have upgraded automation and machining across multiple sites with a focus on high-precision applications. We have installed 72 new CNC machines and are adding nine dry gas seal test rigs. These investments are enhancing throughput and quality, improving lead times, reducing waste, and enhancing customer satisfaction. Our supply chain is being optimized to improve agility, resilience, and cost competitiveness. We are consolidating manufacturing locations and centralizing transactional procurement and finance.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

These initiatives are delivering measurable benefits, including reduced lead times, improved pricing power, and enhanced scalability, and all contribute to growth and improving profitability for the business. Realizing these performance improvements underpins our confidence in the outlook for John Crane for fiscal year 2026 and beyond. As already mentioned, we set out new enhanced medium-term targets for fiscal year 2027 onwards. These targets are ambitious, yet achievable, and reflect our confidence in our ability to deliver premium returns through the cycle and support the superior rating for Smiths Group. At Smiths Group, our long-term success is built on enduring foundations: our purpose, people, values, and commitment to excellence and sustainability. Our purpose is clear: engineering a better future, and is embedded in our strategy, culture, and decision-making.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Our people are always at the heart of our business, and I would like to thank them for delivering the strong financial performance this year. Your dedication is very much appreciated. Our culture is built on our values and reflected in our high-performance mindset and commitment to delivering for our customers, communities, and all stakeholders. We are making meaningful progress on sustainability. Our approach is informed by a double materiality assessment, ensuring our strategy reflects both financial and societal impact. These foundations are central to our pledge to create long-term value for all our stakeholders. In summary, in fiscal year 2025, we delivered strong results, extending our track record of consistent financial performance. We have made great progress, advancing our strategic plans to focus Smiths Group as a high-performance industrial engineering company.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

As a result, Smiths Group is very well positioned to deliver superior value over the medium and long term. We are growth and returns focused, highly cash generative, and have a disciplined approach to capital allocation. We are confident that these strategic actions will unlock significant value and enhance returns to shareholders. Thank you for listening. Julian and I are now happy to take your questions.

Operator

To ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw a question, please press star one one again. Mr. Mbao will compile the Q&A roster. This will take a few moments. Now we're going to take our first question. Just give us a moment. The question comes to the line of Lushanthan Mahendrarajah from JPMorgan. Your line is open. Please ask your question.

Lushanthan Mahendrarajah
Lushanthan Mahendrarajah
Capital Goods Equity Research Analyst at JP Morgan

To the presentation and spoken, it operates nicely as being work. Returning to normal, I guess, and sort of have a feeling for your confidence for growth in FY 2026. It sounds like the orders are still positive. If you just have that all for a turn, I guess, in terms of 2026. The second question is just on the margin guidance, obviously continuing margin. Very strong growth on the OE side with the CT scanner upgrade. As we think about sort of the aftermarket associated with those OE delivery, just sort of the margin pickup and detection of those years as well.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Okay. Thank you very much. I'll try and answer those questions. From the point of view of John Crane, yes, we saw that the John Crane half, the second half in John Crane. What was comforting in that is, you know, Q3 was better than Q2 and Q4 was better than Q3. That was very, very positive for us. The operational issues have been a challenge. We highlighted that with the cyber incident that exacerbated, as I said, there are 72 CNC machines that were being put in place, and we're heading towards nine new dry gas seals. That was exacerbated by the cybersecurity issue. We have been monitoring the key performance indicators within the business. That's machining hours, both external and internal machining hours. Those are improving. We've been monitoring the number of engineering hours that we need because these are highly engineered products, and that's also improving.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

We did surge those hours, and now they're back to a very manageable level. We continue to monitor on-time delivery, lead times, supply performance, and these are all moving in the right direction. That's associated with that strong order book that we're bringing into the year. The fact that we've seen a positive book to bill, and we have quite a view out into the marketplace of the activity in the marketplace. We feel positive that we'll see improvement on John Crane in fiscal year 2026. Pleased with how that's moving forward. Yes, did it move forward slightly slower in the second half than we thought it would? Absolutely, but the long-term health is still there within the business. On the margin, yes, we said continuing, and we mean continuing margin expansion on that.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

We're seeing that inflation has somewhat moderated, but we still see that we have price in our portfolio. We've learned a lot of lessons about price through the inflationary period. We see that as very positive. We also saw the initial stages of the acceleration plan, and you'll recall, you know, two-thirds of that acceleration plan is around the future of Smiths. We saw the early stages of that acceleration plan coming through, which was gratifying. We'll see about half of that coming through in fiscal year 2026 as well. That will continue to build. You can't not forget, underlying all this, although we don't call out the number, the Smiths Excellence number was strong this year. That was good. It grew again. Smiths Excellence really is starting to bed into the organization. That will be another benefit going forward.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

There are headwinds, and we recognize that there are headwinds of the macroeconomic, the broader macroeconomic environment and tariffs. Our guidance takes account of tariffs and our current understanding. We have those mitigations around that as well. You can see why we're confident in saying that continuing margin expansion. Coming on to your third question, which was about detection. Detection is in a very positive area. You saw that the growth that we recorded this year, we'll see that somewhat moderate going forward in fiscal year 2026 because it has been exceptional, as you point out. The program on CTX, it's an important, but not the only piece of business that Smiths Detection does. It's an important part of the business, but one shouldn't forget the rest of the business, which is also doing relatively well. From that point of view, we're still in the midst of that program.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

It still continues. I think last time we spoke, we'd shipped about 1,600 of those. Now we've shipped about 1,800 of those. The win rate is as good as we highlighted, at least as good as we highlighted. That still has a way to run, as we've pointed out, through 2026 and into 2027, is what we're seeing there. We're pleased with that going forward. Obviously, aftermarket, we've never been shy about talking about the stability of aftermarket. We've never been shy about talking about the margin of aftermarket, which are both very positive for us. We see the aftermarket will come through not only on the CTX, but as we roll forward with all the products that we install. Hopefully those answer your questions, Lush. Thank you.

Lushanthan Mahendrarajah
Lushanthan Mahendrarajah
Capital Goods Equity Research Analyst at JP Morgan

Thank you, guys.

Operator

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. Just give us a moment. The question comes to the line of Christian Hinderaker from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Please ask your question.

Christian Hinderaker
Christian Hinderaker
Executive Director at Goldman Sachs

Morning, Roland. Morning, Julian. Thanks for the opportunity. I want to start with Interconnect, if I can. 18.9% organic growth for the half. I think that was an acceleration from a low double-digit cadence in Q3. I just wonder if there's any change to note in the comp Q on Q or if that's all underlying. Secondly, if I look all the way back to page 85 of the report, APAC revenues for Interconnect have effectively doubled for the full year, that is. Is that all driven by the strength in semi-test? I guess interested how we think about that regional dynamic for Interconnect, given the same table implies more than 90% of its assets in the Americas.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Yes, thank you. From the point of view of Interconnect, we were very pleased with the growth in Interconnect. It continues to be a very strong and well-balanced business. In fact, I think we shouldn't forget, yes, the headline is semiconductor test and the leading position and the excellent sort of products that we have within that are helping us move with the market. Not forgetting that this is also an operational challenge and the fact that we've set ourselves up incredibly well for delivering this amount of growth, which one shouldn't underestimate. That mixture between operational excellence and product excellence has really delivered for us on that. We continue to see strong orders in that area. Not forgetting that this business is exposed, over half of it's exposed to aerospace and defense. We're seeing broadly across the business that market is definitely being positive going forward on that.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

I will let Julian comment on Interconnect as he's close to the business, having previously run it very recently. The growth in APAC also does reflect the growth in semiconductor. We don't see that changes the shape of the business particularly. Julian, perhaps you want to add some more color.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

Thanks, Roland. Not much to add. We're particularly pleased with the semiconductor performance and particularly the strength of the business in AI, where we perform particularly strongly. It's true that a large portion of the business is in the Americas, and we've had that strength in aerospace and defense, particularly coming through in the U.S. Very pleased with where Smiths Interconnect is as we go into the new year.

Christian Hinderaker
Christian Hinderaker
Executive Director at Goldman Sachs

Thank you, Beth. Second one, maybe for Julian, is just clarifying the charges on the balance sheet restatement in Flex-Tek. If I'm reading that correctly, $8 million of the charge is within the adjusted earnings line and a further $15 million one-off that further reduces your reporting earnings for the business. I just want to understand a little bit the rationale for that split and whether I've got that well understood.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

Yes, so Christian, in quarter four, we discovered what ended up being a non-material balance sheet restatement in one of our Flex-Tek businesses. When we dug into it, it was effectively covering multiple years, which guided our treatment with £8 million, as you say, as a headline charge or indeed reflected in our reported numbers for 2025. We had the £15 million charge to non-headline, reflecting the balances for previous years. We thought that was the best presentation of the effect of this through our numbers so that we could show an appropriate organic performance in the year. I will just add that whilst unfortunate and something that we didn't want to have, this particular event has now been fully investigated. It is now fully resolved, and the learnings from this have been taken forward into the rest of the business.

Christian Hinderaker
Christian Hinderaker
Executive Director at Goldman Sachs

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. It comes to the line of Mark Davies Jones from Stifel. Your line is open. Please ask your question.

Mark Davies Jones
Mark Davies Jones
Capital Goods Equity Research Analyst at Stifel Financial

Thank you very much. Morning, both. Can I just ask a bit more about the moving parts of Flex-Tek and the different end markets addressed? The risk of being picky is 6% growth in aerospace, relatively modest given the current trends in that industry. Is that related to the sort of supply chain issues we're hearing about in engines? Julian, I think you mentioned a big industrial electrical heat project coming to a conclusion in the first half of next year. Is that causing any kind of gap in the outlook for that aspect of the business? Thirdly, I note that recent acquisitions have been weighted more to the construction end of the business, despite the fact that that market looks relatively soft, short term anyway.

Mark Davies Jones
Mark Davies Jones
Capital Goods Equity Research Analyst at Stifel Financial

Is that just availability in terms of where the opportunity to consolidate the market sits at the moment, or do you think we should see acquisitions in other parts of the business too?

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Thank you for those. From the point of view of the aerospace business, we're actually very pleased with the growth rate we're seeing there. We're working through any sort of supply chain challenges that we have. They're not major fault for us at all. We're pleased with the continuing growth rate there. We're pleased with those relationships with the customers. We will, as we said, we're coming into the year on aerospace with a very robust order book and a positive book-to-bill ratio. We see that coming through very strongly, and that's reflected in that 6%, which we think is a good number to think about on that one.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

On the industrial engineering projects, yes, we had the large project, which we continue to execute against. We have a funnel of other projects in that area. This is the programmatic part of Flex-Tek. We will continue to build those programs going through. You can see that we've indicated for Flex-Tek, we anticipate growth going forward in the fiscal year 2026. Yes, is it programmatic? Yes, absolutely. Do we have other projects coming in through the process? Absolutely. That leads on to sort of construction. I think much of the numbers might not call it out to such an extent that a standout performance is construction because we know the U.S. market is very muted. We know it continues to be muted. We're not predicting an upturn in how we've looked at our numbers for fiscal year 2026. We're recognizing the market for what it is.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

There might be some good news, but we're not baking that in from the point of view of the rates and the putative rate changes that might happen. However, we think that we're in an advantaged position within that market. Why? We've got some empirical evidence. We continue to grow in spite of the market. We've got the new products coming through, which we mentioned, the Blue Series duct system, that will be a changer. We've got Python coming through as well. We've got the new products. Just as important as the innovation, we've got the customer relationships and the alignment with the correct customers to really make sure that we continue to outperform that. As part of the acquisitions, there were acquisitions in construction. I think we see the megatrend. There is a deficit. We know there's a substantial several million homes missing in America.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

We know it's going to take them perhaps a decade to fill that deficit from that point of view. The megatrend is correct for us. Our strategy is aligned with the megatrend. We're advantaged because of the way we play in that market as we are the people who are consolidating, which gives me comfort about the R&D spend that we've got there because of the new products as well. You start to put those things together, and now is a good time to continue our strategy because when it does turn, you'll see the exceptional performance coming through from that. The strategy is essentially long term. One of the acquisitions that we recently announced wasn't in construction. It was in heat. Heat is also another market, which obviously we touched on with the larger programs there.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

We're very keen to both develop our presence and our routes to market within heat, but also to fill in technology gaps that we see within that, either through organic investment, but in this case, through inorganic investment.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

I would just add there, Mark, we do have a very active pipeline in Flex-Tek, and we continue to work that pipeline, and we do expect to see more acquisitions in this space as we go into the new year.

Mark Davies Jones
Mark Davies Jones
Capital Goods Equity Research Analyst at Stifel Financial

Excellent. Thanks very much.

Operator

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. The question comes to the line of Margaret Schooly from Redburn Atlantic. Your line is open. Please ask your question.

Margaret Schooley
Margaret Schooley
Equity Research Analyst - Industrials at Rothschild & Co Redburn

Morning, gentlemen. Thank you for taking my question. I actually had two, if you would. The first one I'll just put up there. In terms of John Crane, again, organic growth, can you give us some indication of the split between what was volume and price?

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Yes. From the point of view of where we've been in the past, to contextualize it, essentially, we did experience a lot of price growth in the past. That's also helped us develop the skills and the disciplines we need for managing price growth. What was pleasing this year was actually this year was more about volume growth. That, I think, is important to me to say, yes, yes, we're managing pricing. Yes, it's not quite such an inflationary environment. However, people are willing to pay for the John Crane brand. We're now driving through volume. Would you like to give us some guidance on the split?

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

Yeah, just to say that we've taken some additional price to reflect tariffs. As I said, as Roland said, the dynamic of volume and price has been positive this year.

Margaret Schooley
Margaret Schooley
Equity Research Analyst - Industrials at Rothschild & Co Redburn

Excellent. Thank you. My second one, you mentioned several new products in Flex-Tek, which is driving through growth. In the presentation, you also mentioned in John Crane the coaxial separation dry gas seal. Can you just give us a little understanding on the John Crane new product introductions? What markets you're actually targeting to further exploit, or what other new products and adjacencies we should look forward to in fiscal year 2025 to continue to support your growth expectations?

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Yes, I think it was pleasing to see, and it does get a lot of focus from both Julian and myself because I think John Crane is an area where we can definitely improve the way we introduce products. We can improve what we're doing with our new product development pipeline. I think I'm very keen on new product development, new technology development, new process development, and new materials development. I think John Crane, it will take time for these things to crystallize. We can already see with the separation seal that the focus on getting products out there, getting products aligned with key customers, and getting products aligned with key accounts to make sure they're adopted relatively quickly. I think there is that commercialization, which you'll see us focus on more and more about how do we improve the products that are already out there.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

The products introducing new technologies, bringing them, increasing their specifications, and then these new products, which you saw in the separation seal. You'll see that mixture coming through. Some of those new products will be longer term. The upgraded products will be shorter term, more easily adopted, meeting customers' requirements. Underlying all that, what are the sort of broad fundamentals? The great thing about the John Crane seals is they're not necessarily end market specific. Obviously, the end markets do drive it, but looking, all these seals need similar characteristics and need similar improvements in characteristics. What do I mean by that? I mean, they need higher pressures. We're developing the technologies that allow us to have higher pressures and the products that allow us to have higher pressures. They're looking towards higher temperatures.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

We're developing the products and the platforms, I should really say, that allow us to higher temperatures. The third one, which is very, very much of focus, is high speeds. If you mix those sort of three ingredients together, you know that can go for very traditional energy, that can go for hydrogen, that can go for LNG. You can see all those markets enjoy the benefits of those improvements. I think we're becoming much more coherent on how we develop those products, which I think will benefit our customers ultimately.

Margaret Schooley
Margaret Schooley
Equity Research Analyst - Industrials at Rothschild & Co Redburn

Thank you. One last one, if I may, which might be slightly difficult to answer given where you are, but since the announcement of your strategic actions, in particular on detection, has your thinking evolved at all as you go through this exercise in separating some of the assets? Can you give us any indication of the level of interest or how the market backdrop has changed or in any way changed your thinking since the point you announced the strategic actions on detection specifically?

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Detection specifically. Yeah. On the broad approach, we're very pleased with the performance of those assets that we've highlighted for separation. We knew it was a good time and we knew they were performing well. We're pleased to see that continuing performance. Absolutely, the timing is working well for us on that. As we said, Interconnect, we'll announce something at the end of the calendar year. We've seen we're continuing on that track and we're working through that to announce something at the end of the calendar year. On Detection, again, we did a lot of the desktop and role-playing on this to see how it would work. You saw the outcome of what that said, the clear sale of Interconnect. That was obvious. We wanted to make sure that we were value creating. Value creation is what this is about and surety of delivery.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

That's where you see the demerger. We're running the twin track of demerger and sale process for that. The work that we're doing behind the scenes on separation is progressing as we anticipated. I'm not going to give you a sort of blow-by-blow account, but that's essentially where we are. Obviously, we're always thinking about the value creation and the surety. The strategic direction was well set and we're very sure that that is the right strategic direction.

Margaret Schooley
Margaret Schooley
Equity Research Analyst - Industrials at Rothschild & Co Redburn

Excellent. Thank you very much for your time.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. It comes to the line of Alex O'Hanlon from Panmure Liberum. Your line is open. Please ask your question.

Alex O'Hanlon
Equity Research Analyst at Panmure Liberum

Good morning, gentlemen. Well done on a great set of results. Just one question from me. Could you give us an idea of the level of employee churn at Smiths Group and how that compares to recent history? I guess what I'm trying to get at is how are you managing the culture of the business during a time of transition? Is it a case that employees don't feel unsettled given that the business has already run very separately and maybe feel empowered? Any color you can give us on that would be greatly appreciated.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

No, no, thank you. Thank you for the kind comment at the beginning. This is something we look at very, very carefully because it is one of those questions which one has to ask in these situations. What we've made sure is that we've been clear and transparent with people and explained to them what's happening. That's not only within the businesses that have been separated, but also the businesses which are being retained, as well as the head office, which we've spoken quite extensively about, about this 1.5 to 1.7% that our target is for central costs. We do recognize that this is a moment in time and a difficult moment. I think of it, people talk about transformation. I think this is a continuing journey. For us, you know we fully intend to be moving at pace and always with purpose.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

We have made sure that we're talking to everybody who we work with on this and preparing people for the necessary sort of questions that would be answered, make sure that we have a unified position to things to make sure that we're dealing with people with equity as well. At the moment, what we're seeing in the figures is probably where you'd like me to get to is we're actually seeing our attrition at a slightly lower level than we've been seeing previously. I won't give you the exact numbers, but at the moment, you know what we're doing seems to be the right thing. Obviously, it does affect individuals, and we are acutely aware that it is a person-by-person thing. At the moment, in the broad, we're not seeing the uptick one might have anticipated.

Alex O'Hanlon
Equity Research Analyst at Panmure Liberum

That's super helpful. Really appreciate it.

Operator

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. Just give us a moment. The question comes to the line of Stephan Klepp from BNP Paribas. Your line is open. Please. Ask a question.

Analyst

I'm calling because this is already, it's a Sunday situation. I'm not able to share the meeting because I'm in the Zoom time, but instead of the Zoom chat, it shares your message there. I'm not going to. The question is, did you meet someone? Is there, even Clare is pacing, and I'm not even meaning that it's the conducting man from the area. I'm just, some of the specifics being so crazy. There's no one who shows the connectivity and so on.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Right. I struggled to hear that question, but I will repeat it to make sure I've got it. Julian, if you heard it better, then happy with that. Okay.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

You were asking about how the execution is affecting John Crane, and particularly if we've lost market share and has that created pent-up demand. I think that was the question, and has that therefore created more visibility in John Crane. Sorry, the line is bad. That's all right. From the point of view of the delivery in John Crane, as I said, Q3 was better than Q2. Q4 was better than Q3, but we are ramping up. The cyber incident was definitely an issue for us around engineering, as I mentioned before, but more broadly for John Crane, being the most integrated of our businesses. During that period, we were obviously talking to customers. We were obviously making sure that the customers were comforted with that. This is a very sticky business, as we know, although there are opportunities to gain market share as we've laid out.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

We were very aware of that and made sure that we worked through that. Now we're on the path to recovery. As I said, our machining hours, both internal and external, are up. Our engineering hours are now stabilized, having gone through a surge to deal with the heart of what was the issue, which was we locked down our drawings to protect them, and then took time to release our drawings back. Leading indicators on lead time, on supplier delivery, those are all moving in the right direction. We will see over time that developing. The answer to what about the order book and what about your visibility, through what I pointed out, through this period, we have a strong order book, so that was a positive. We also are starting to reduce our own lead times in this period, and we have a positive book-to-bill ratio.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

As we've talked previously, yes, there's a book-to-bill ratio as the orders are actually coming in, but also we have visibility into our customers' programs, which are long-term, multi-year programs. We do have that visibility. We believe if you think about where our guidance is, on the four to six, I think it would be fair to say that John Crane will be at the top end of that guidance.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

Roland, I'll just add there that the aftermarket saw some slippage in Q3 around the cyber incident. Of course, it's very difficult for anyone else to pick up our aftermarket. What we're expecting to see is aftermarket returning as our operational improvement starts to come through. We did see an improvement in aftermarket orders through Q4.

Operator

Excuse me, Stephan. Please accept my apologies. Your line is breaking up. I believe our speakers will not be able to hear your question. Please, can you adjust the volume?

Analyst

One second. Can you hear me?

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Let's try.

Analyst

I'm very sorry for that. Don't know what's going on. On Interconnect, it's very good news that you are very far in the process and say that at the end of the year, we're going to see the divestment. Is it right from the capital allocation perspective that in this big transition that you're going through, larger deals on the M&A side are off the table? Should we mentally earmark the proceeds of Interconnect all to be deployed for?

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

That's a good take, that one, Julian.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

Yeah, thanks, Stephan. Yes, just to repeat the point Roland made, the sale process for Smiths Interconnect is progressing well, and our plan to announce that by the end of the calendar year remains in place. In terms of the use of proceeds, we've been clear that our intention is to return a significant portion of proceeds through to shareholders, although we haven't yet determined or agreed the mechanic. In terms of our capital allocation, we've been pretty clear on this in that we allocate our capital to develop and generate the very best returns. Of course, that's illustrating our very strong, rookie performance in 2025. We'll continue with that. We'll allocate capital organically, and Roland has given us some insight into some of the organic R&D investments and programs that we're pushing forward with.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

We have the investment into the acceleration plan, which is delivering the returns that we expect to see next year. Then inorganically, we will continue to work an active pipeline of inorganic acquisitions. We will continue to see acquisitions as an important part of our story as we go into the future, particularly in higher value, high-return adjacencies in both John Crane and Flex-Tek.

Analyst

Thank you so much. Thank you and apologies for the bad line that I'm having. Sorry for that.

Operator

No problem.

Operator

Thank you. We are going to take our last question for today. It comes from the line of Dylan Jones from Kepler Cheuvreux. Your line is open. Please ask a question.

Dylan Jones
Dylan Jones
Equity Research Analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux

Morning James. Thanks for taking my question. Overall, just a few quick follow-ups. The first one's just on the Flex-Tek restatement. It's an $8 million. It goes through the headline number. This is a balance sheet restatement. Can we expect to get all of this back in fiscal year 2026 and going forward, or is it more of a realization of an accounting policy that wasn't being applied appropriately, and it's going to sort of remain in that sort of cost base in future years? Then just the second question. You obviously touched on some of the R&D and innovation, qualitatively, what's sort of going on there. I guess just given it's more looking at future Smiths Group, it's identified as one of those areas where you can get that sort of above-market growth.

Dylan Jones
Dylan Jones
Equity Research Analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux

Just wondering how we should think about that, whether it's a step up in R&D in that Flex-Tek and John Crane business that would need to capture that higher level of growth with the product innovation, or if it's more just a concentrated focus on those two businesses that should enable a higher level of growth from the innovation piece. Thanks.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

You want to take the first?

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

Yeah, thanks for the question. Of the $8 million that was charged to this year's Flex-Tek profit, we expect some of that to come back next year, but not all of it. That's not necessarily because there's any repeat of the problem. What it really is, is getting to a point to understand what is the fundamental underlying profitability of that business as we look out into the future. The business is working through that as we speak. Some of it will come back, but we're not guiding on the absolute amount.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

On the R&D, this will be very much a focus. As some of you will know, my background is innovation and R&D. I think with that focus and some of those points I was talking about, about enhancing the products within John Crane in that sort of product technology process and materials approach, really getting the products we have fit for the future, and then developing the products, the long-term new products, is important as well. You'll see that focus, and it's very pleasing to see the separation seal come through, but you'll see that focus really start delivering. It's not just about the new product development. It's about the new product commercialization, making sure that we've got the customers, those key opinion leaders, those key accounts ready for those products as well, almost co-collaborating in some cases, hopefully, with that. We'll see that driving through on John Crane.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

For me, Flex-Tek, the focus on Flex-Tek, the Blue Series, is really the most recent, but really, there is a lot of innovation about Flex-Tek because Flex-Tek is so close to its customer. I think there might be a little bit more, sort of I'd like to see a little bit more discipline driven through that capture of requirements.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Yes, I think you'll see Flex-Tek, I mean, you look at the numbers and you say they don't spend a lot of R&D, but relative to the competition in absolute terms, they do spend, and I think they can turn into a real market leader on the innovation as well as the market leader where they already are, just in the same way we saw the effect of R&D on the growth rate that we see within Smiths Detection recently, or the growth rate that we now see in Smiths Interconnect with that focus on semiconductor that they had, for example. I think expect more on the innovation side from us, but not necessarily spending more money on that.

Dylan Jones
Dylan Jones
Equity Research Analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux

Okay, clear. Thanks for that.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The speakers are on the third question for today. Thank you for joining the conference today. You may all disconnect. Have a nice day.

Roland Carter
Roland Carter
President, CEO & Director at Smiths Group

Thank you very much.

Julian Fagge
Julian Fagge
CFO & Director at Smiths Group

Thank you.

Executives
    • Roland Carter
      Roland Carter
      President, CEO & Director
    • Julian Fagge
      Julian Fagge
      CFO & Director
Analysts
    • Lushanthan Mahendrarajah
      Capital Goods Equity Research Analyst at JP Morgan
    • Christian Hinderaker
      Executive Director at Goldman Sachs
    • Mark Davies Jones
      Capital Goods Equity Research Analyst at Stifel Financial
    • Margaret Schooley
      Equity Research Analyst - Industrials at Rothschild & Co Redburn
    • Alex O'Hanlon
      Equity Research Analyst at Panmure Liberum
    • Analyst
    • Dylan Jones
      Equity Research Analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux
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