Johnson Matthey, the London-listed industrial group, will on Thursday announce the sale of a unit concerned within the manufacturing of sustainable aviation gasoline (SAF) as its board fends off strain from an American activist investor.
Banking sources mentioned the deal had been agreed for a worth of between £1.5bn and £2bn – which on the higher finish would equate to greater than 80% of the group’s total £2.3bn market capitalisation.
The id of the client couldn’t be established on Wednesday night.
Promoting its Catalyst Applied sciences is anticipated to be welcomed by some shareholders who’ve argued that Johnson Matthey has been insufficiently centered on higher-growth companies with extra apparent potential to generate monetary returns.
The London-listed firm has been below siege from Normal Industries, the US-based conglomerate which is its greatest shareholder with a stake of over 10%.
Normal Industries wrote an open letter to Johnson Matthey’s board in January, accusing it of destroying shareholder worth.
It mentioned the British firm’s administrators have been responsible of a “continued lack of urgency and incapacity…to do what is necessary to turn Johnson Matthey around and help it to realise its potential”.
The Catalyst Applied sciences arm accounted for roughly a fifth of group gross sales within the half-year to the tip of August, however a few third of group revenue.
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In addition to being concerned within the manufacturing of know-how wanted to make SAF, the division is a market chief in supplying specialised providers to the chemical compounds and power sectors, with a selected concentrate on decarbonisation.
Extra usually, Johnson Matthey is one among Britain’s most important industrial names, tracing its historical past again to 1817.
A spokesman for Johnson Matthey, which has seen its shares droop by practically 1 / 4 over the past yr, declined to touch upon Wednesday.
