Smiths Group plc (LON:SMIN) has announced its full year results for the 12 months ended 31 July 2026.
Pioneers of progress – engineering a better future
Year of significant strategic progress, strengthening focus on higher growth and margin
Roland Carter, Chief Executive Officer, commented:
“2026 was a year of significant strategic progress. We transformed our portfolio and unlocked over £3bn of value which repositioned Smiths as a focused, premium industrial engineering company. We delivered a resilient performance with growth in revenue, profit and margin, and strong cash generation in the face of ongoing macro uncertainty.
“Over several years, we have purposefully aligned our business to attractive end-markets and demand trends that offer structural long-term growth. Supported by a strong balance sheet and a high proportion of aftermarket and recurring revenue, our focus is to accelerate organic growth, enhance innovation, execute with pace and discipline, and compound value through disciplined capital allocation.
“As we enter FY2027, underlying market conditions remain challenging, but our robust order book and business momentum underpins our expectation of organic revenue growth of ~4% and further increasing our operating margin into our medium-term target range. The positive addition of DRC and data centre exposure, the structural tailwinds in global energy resulting from the anticipated response to energy security and the positive portfolio development in Flex-Tek supports our strong conviction that we will more quickly deliver our 5-7% organic growth target in the medium term. We are delivering significant value today while creating a clear pathway to substantial long-term value creation and sizeable returns for shareholders.”
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
· Organic revenue growth of +1.2%
o John Crane: +2.3%; strong OE and Americas sales, whilst absorbing a ~£20m Middle East conflict impact
o Flex-Tek: (0.4)%; strong Aerospace offset by lower revenue from Construction and Thermal Solutions
· Headline operating profit margin expanded to 20.6%, alongside investment in growth initiatives; ROCE4 of 23.5%
· Acquired DRC Heat Transfer for £165m, extending Flex-Tek into high-growth cooling and data centre markets
· Divested Smiths Interconnect and Smiths Detection for a combined EV of £3.3bn, ahead of market expectations; sales agreed for three Flex-Tek industrial businesses for £40m as part of portfolio high-grading
· Stronger balance sheet at £1,747m net cash, enhanced by pension fund transactions; strong operating cash conversion
· Announcing today the launch of a process to divest the John Crane US legacy asbestos liability
· Disciplined and efficient execution of share buyback programme; £1.5bn buyback completed, £1.5bn still to be returned
· FY2027 guidance ~4% organic revenue growth; headline operating profit margin of ~21%
· Strong conviction in achieving medium-term 5-7% organic revenue growth and 21-23% operating profit margin targets
| Headline3 | Statutory | ||||||
| FY2026 | FY2025 | Reported | Organic2 | FY2026 | FY2025 | Reported | |
| growth | growth | growth | |||||
| Continuing operations: Smiths1 | |||||||
| Revenue | £1,937m | £1,898m | +2.1% | +1.2% | £1,937m | £1,898m | +2.1% |
| Operating profit | £399m | £388m | +2.7% | +1.9% | £289m | £347m | (16.6)% |
| Operating profit margin4 | 20.6% | 20.5% | +10bps | +20bps | – | – | – |
| EPS | 86.8p | 81.9p | +6.0% | – | 49.5p | 74.5p | (33.6)% |
| Operating cash conversion4 | 96% | 97% | (1)pps | – | – | – | – |
| Total Group1 | |||||||
| EPS | 135.7p | 121.2p | +12.0% | – | 628.8p | 85.7p | +634% |
| Dividend per share | 48.5p | 46.0p | +5.4% | – | 48.5p | 46.0p | +5.4% |
Statutory reporting and definitions
Statutory reporting takes account of all items excluded from headline performance. See accounting policies for an explanation of the presentation of results and
note 3 to the financial statements for an analysis of non-headline items. The following definitions are applied throughout the financial report:
1 Total Group refers to the combination of John Crane, Flex-Tek (including certain general industrial businesses), Smiths Detection and Smiths Interconnect. Smiths and/or continuing operations refers to the combination of John Crane and Flex-Tek only (see note 28). All figures relate to ‘Smiths’ unless otherwise stated.
2 Organic is headline adjusted to exclude the effects of foreign exchange and acquisitions.
3 Headline: In addition to statutory reporting, the Group reports on a headline basis. Definitions of headline metrics, and information about the adjustments to statutory measures, are provided in note 3 to the financial statements.
4 Alternative Performance Measures (APMs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are defined in note 30 to the financial statements.
