Finance
Smiths Group to sell baggage-screening unit to CVC for $2.65 billion
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on December 3, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Quick Summary
Smiths Group sells its Detection unit to CVC for $2.65 billion, focusing on industrial technologies. The deal is set to close in 2026.
Smiths Group Sells Detection Unit to CVC for $2.65 Billion
Dec 3 (Reuters) - Britain's Smiths Group said on Wednesday it had agreed to sell its Smiths Detection unit, known for its baggage-screening kit in airports and explosive detectors, for 2 billion pounds ($2.65 billion), including debt, to private equity firm CVC Capital.
Shares of the FTSE-100 engineering group rose more than 3% in early trade. Panmure Liberum analyst Alexandro da Silva O’Hanlon said the price tag was at the top end of the 1.3 billion to 2 billion pound range expected by the market.
Originally known for precision watches and speedometers, Smiths Group is streamlining its business to focus on industrial technologies through its John Crane and Flex-Tek businesses after pressure from U.S. activist investor Engine Capital in January to break up the conglomerate.
The deal, combined with the sale of Smiths Interconnect in October, completes an overhaul that will leave the 170-year-old company concentrated on flow management and thermal solutions serving energy, industrial and construction markets.
Smiths Detection, the company's second-largest division, generated revenues of 963 million pounds and headline operating profit of 122 million pounds in the fiscal year ended July 31.
The company expects to receive net cash proceeds of about 1.85 billion pounds after adjustments, and will return a "large portion" to shareholders.
Airports globally have been upgrading their screening technologies, with government-mandated rollouts of Computed Tomography Scanners, which provide 3D imaging and allow passengers to carry liquids up to 2 litres and keep electronics in bags, speeding up security checks.
Smiths Group expects the deal to close in the second half of 2026, pending regulatory approvals and completion of consultations with the works council at Smiths Detection France.
Barclays was sole financial adviser to CVC, while Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan acted as joint financial advisers to Smiths Group.
($1 = 0.7549 pounds)
(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong and Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru. Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Mark Potter)
Key Takeaways
- •Smiths Group sells its Detection unit to CVC Capital for $2.65 billion.
- •The sale is part of Smiths Group's strategic refocus on industrial technologies.
- •Smiths Detection is known for airport baggage-screening and explosive detectors.
- •The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026.
- •Smiths Group plans to return a large portion of proceeds to shareholders.
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