Britain's Smiths Group to sell interconnect unit to Koch's Molex in $1.75 billion deal

(Reuters) -Smiths Group said on Thursday it will sell its interconnect unit to U.S. electronic components maker Molex Electronic in a deal valued at 1.3 billion pounds ($1.75 billion), after facing investor pressure to break up the conglomerate.

Under pressure from U.S. activist investor Engine Capital, Smiths Group said earlier this year that it would divest its interconnect arm to focus on industrial technologies through its John Crane and Flex-Tek businesses.

Joe Nelligan, CEO of Molex, said in a statement the deal will enable the company to expand its aerospace and defense business. Molex is a unit of industrial conglomerate Koch.

Smiths Interconnect makes products including defence and satellite communications, antenna systems and multi-function radio frequency systems.

The unit, which has operations across 12 countries, had revenue of 421 million pounds in fiscal 2025, accounting for about 13% of the group's total revenue of 3.34 billion pounds, its latest annual report showed.

The deal is expected to close in the second half of fiscal 2026.

Smiths Group continues to progress with both the sale and demerger processes for its Smiths Detection business, which makes baggage-screening kits and explosives detectors, the company said on Thursday.

Its board will provide an update on how it will use proceeds from the sale of its interconnect unit in its first-quarter trading statement due November 19.

($1 = 0.7443 pounds)

(Reporting by Abu Sultan, Preetika Parashuraman and Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)