As announced on 22nd May 2025, Johnson Matthey plc (LON:JMAT) have agreed the sale of Catalyst Technologies business to Honeywell International Inc. We continue to make progress on both regulatory approvals and the carve-out of the business, and expect the transaction to complete by the first half of calendar year 2026.
For the 2025/26 financial year, Catalyst Technologies will be reported as a discontinued operation in accordance with IFRS 5. Consequently, the headline financials to be published for the group (sales and underlying operating profit) will exclude Catalyst Technologies. To aid comparison of our results with prior periods, we have provided a breakdown of sales and underlying operating profit by business for the year ended 31st March 2025 in the appendix on page 3.
Pre-close trading update for the half year ended 30th September 2025
Johnson Matthey also releases a pre-close trading update for the half year ended 30th September 2025, ahead of its half year results scheduled for 20th November 2025.
We expect strong performance in group underlying operating profit for the half year (excluding Catalyst Technologies and Value Businesses), driven by ongoing efficiency improvements across the group, together with strong trading in the PGM Services business.
We are also making encouraging progress in terms of cash performance. Although group free cash flow in the first half is expected to be an outflow, we expect to report a significant
year-on-year improvement in the first half (1H 2024/25: £169 million outflow¹). As we further embed our working capital improvement measures, we expect a material step up in free cash flow for the full year when compared to the prior year (2024/25: £59 million inflow¹).
The group outlook for the full year (excluding Catalyst Technologies and Value Businesses) is at the higher end of our initial guidance of mid single digit growth in underlying operating profit². Overall group performance will continue to be weighted towards the second half. If precious metal prices and foreign exchange rates remain at their current levels³ for the remainder of 2025/26, we now expect a c.£10 million net benefit to full year operating performance compared with the prior year (previously £5 million net adverse impact as guided in May 2025).⁴,⁵
Discontinued operations: Catalyst Technologies underlying operating profit in the first half is expected to be materially down year-on-year, impacted by weaker demand for catalysts and the timing of licensing wins in key end markets. The long-term growth potential for this business remains strong, with additional large-scale project wins in the half and a healthy project pipeline in our sustainable technologies portfolio.
Half year results
Johnson Matthey will announce our half year results for the six months ended 30th September 2025 on 20th November 2025.
