Smiths Group Plc

Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us. I hope you enjoyed the video celebrating our 175 year anniversary, which highlights many significant events over our history. micro xsmiths represents more than a fifth of this time and i have been fortunate enough to work on many projects where we have made important contributions to engineering and to our customers 2026 is yet another momentous period in our history as we reshape the portfolio and i am delighted at the execution of this strategy so far Turning to the agenda for today, I'll start with the key highlights before handing over to Julian to walk through the numbers in more detail. I'll then come back to you to provide an update on our strategy. And as always, we'll have plenty of time for questions at the end. The first half of fiscal year 2026 has been a strategically important period for Smith as we executed major portfolio actions, achieving attractive valuations for both Smith's interconnect and Smith's detection. It marks a period of progress in which we have delivered a solid financial performance and positioned the company for stronger, more focused growth and improved margin and return profile. These outcomes reflect consistent execution and sustained progress. We have continued to take a disciplined approach to capital allocation, investing organically and in growth accretive acquisitions, and divestments have enabled enhanced capital returns to shareholders. with a further announcement today of a new £1.5 billion programme. We have updated our fiscal year 2026 outlook for Smiths, following our change in reporting for discontinued operations. We expect organic revenue growth of 3-4%, reflecting expectations of a stronger second half, with its growth in line with our medium term target range. And we expect an operating profit margin of around 20%, demonstrating clear progress towards our medium-term financial targets. With that, I'll now hand over to Julian to talk through the numbers in more detail.

Thank you, Roland, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to be here today to present our fiscal year 26 half-year financial results. As usual, I'll take you through our financial performance, provide more colour around the latest developments in our businesses, before covering capital allocation. Before I start, I'd like to flag that the results include more complicated accounting disclosures than is usual, as we transition through the separations of interconnect and detection. Group refers to John Crane, Flextech and Smiths Detection, which was the basis of our guidance at the beginning of our fiscal year. Smith refers to John Crane and Flextech, our continuing businesses, and total group includes all four businesses across both continuing and discontinued operations. Starting with group headline performance, organic revenue growth was plus 4%, which was in line with our expectations. Operating profit grew 7.2% on an organic basis and 5.6% on a reported basis, resulting in a margin expansion of 50 basis points. Revenue for Smiths grew 0.4% organically, consistent with our expectations for a higher second half weighting. Reported revenue declined 1%, including a plus 1.4% contribution from acquisitions in FlexTech, offset by adverse foreign exchange of 2.8%. Smith's margin expanded by 20 basis points to 19.8%, continued progress towards our medium-term target of 21% to 23%. Total group EPS was up 8.4% organically, and 11.7% on a reported basis supported by the share buyback programme. Return on capital employed increased 130 basis points to 18.4%, and operating cash conversion was 78%. Turning to group revenue, the 4% growth was supported by growing momentum in John Crane, with a strong second quarter driven by growth in energy, Strong growth in Flextech Aerospace, offset by softness in Flextech Construction. And strong delivery in Smith Detection, where we continued to build and convert its strong multi-year order book. This growth was supplemented by a positive contribution from Flextech's acquisitions. Across the portfolio, there was a good contribution from new products and innovation, as well as strong commercial execution. Operating profit margin expanded 50 basis points for group. This growth reflected operating leverage and a positive mix impact from growth in John Crane and Smith's detection, a negative impact from US tariffs with the largest impact coming through in detection, and 70 basis points of efficiencies coming through from the acceleration plan, largely at John Crane, a reduction in central costs alongside savings from the Smith's Excellence Programme. Strong organic EPS growth of 8.4% was achieved by the organic operating profit increase, the share buyback partially offset by higher tax and interest. Reported EPS grew 11.7% to 62 pence per share, reflecting accretion from FlexTech acquisitions, adverse foreign exchange and the accounting effects related to the sale of Smiths Detection and Smiths Interconnect. which under IFRS 5 are no longer subject to amortisation or depreciation. Total cash generation was £220 million, representing a 78% operating cash conversion. This reflected lower capex at £29 million following the completion of the majority of automation and capacity investment last year. This was offset by working capital outflows in John Crane and Smiths Detection to support second half order book delivery, It is worth noting that last year's working capital benefited from better than usual payables at the end of the period in the context of the cyber incident. Turning now to the continuing business. We'll focus today on John Crane and Flextech, but you can find performance reviews to Smiths Detection and Smiths Interconnect in today's RNS. John Crane delivered 2% organic growth with momentum building across the half. Following the marginal decline in Q1, John Crane delivered mid-single-digit growth in the second quarter, reflecting healthy demand and improvements in operational execution following the automation and machining capacity investments. Growth was led by energy, which grew 3.9%, with a strong performance in the second quarter. Dry gas seal demand remained healthy, while system sales were impacted by some project phasing in Europe and Asia. Performance in industrial was lower as a result of overcapacity in Chinese chemicals, partly offset by strength in mining and pulp and paper in the Americas. Aftermarket, which makes around 70% of revenue, was strong with increased focus on reliability-based contracts. Sales of original equipment performed solidly, particularly in the US and Latin America. John Crane margin expanded 50 basis points to 23.2%, reflecting pricing, mixed benefits from higher aftermarket growth, Smith's excellence and acceleration plan benefits, offsetting a limited impact from US tariffs. We continue to invest in innovation that strengthens our leadership in critical flow control. In the first half, we saw positive uptake of the new Type 93AX separation seal that we launched last year, and we also launched a new mechanical seal designed for ethane and ethylene pipelines. This has already delivered performance improvements for a leading ethane pipeline operator in the US Gulf Coast. Looking ahead, we expect John Crane's growth momentum to continue, with the second half expected to grow at a similar rate to the second quarter. Our growth outlook is supported by a strong and expanding order book in both OE and aftermarket. And with a positive book to bill, we have good visibility through the remainder of fiscal year 26. Turning to FlexTech. To reflect how we run the business, we show the performance of construction, thermal solutions and aerospace. The results exclude certain industrial businesses which have been classified as discontinued operations. This reflects the strategic decision to high-grade the Flextech portfolio to focus on higher growth and higher margin market sub-segments. Organic revenue for the half declined 2%, largely reflecting market-driven weakness in the US construction market, offset by strong growth in aerospace. Acquisitions delivered £12 million, or 3.4% to growth, which was offset by negative foreign exchange. In construction, performance reflected a challenging period for U.S. residential construction, where housing starts and building permits remain negative over the six-month period. This continuing market downturn has had a knock-on effect on customer inventories, which has impacted order levels, particularly in residential heat kits. Second half performance is dependent on the pace of recovery in US housing, which remains uncertain, and where builders' confidence remains well below 50. We have taken a cautious view on this. The thermal solutions business declined 7.8% in the period, largely related to customer destocking of heat kits that I just mentioned. This was partly offset by the completion of a large ultra-high heating contract. The pipeline of projects in this space remains healthy. Aerospace grew strongly at 10.1%, supported by healthy demand and a full and growing order book across both commercial and defence aircraft build programmes. Alongside renewed long-term agreements, these provide good visibility for the second half and beyond. Regarding acquisitions, the integration of modular metal is largely complicated. and DuckPack is progressing to plan. In thermal solutions, the integration of Watco is also largely complete and the business is now focused on accelerating growth from expanded capacity in its new manufacturing facility. Operating margin was 20.4%, a 60 basis points decrease compared with last year. This reflected negative drop through from lower volumes, the completion of the higher margin ultra high heat contract and higher material costs. This was partly offset by efficiency savings and the initial benefits from the acceleration plan. Our approach to capital allocation continues to support growth, returns and balance sheet efficiency. We invested a total of £101 million in RD&E and CapEx, investing for future growth and efficiency. We increased our interim dividend by 5.4% to 15 pence per share, and we paid £104 million in dividends in the first half, continuing our track record of consistent dividend growth. We completed the £500 million buyback at the beginning of December and we started executing the £1 billion buyback related to the sale of Smiths Interconnect. This is expected to be substantially complete by the end of calendar year 2026, with the first tranche of £600 million to be completed by the end of this fiscal year. We recently announced the acquisition of DRC for £164 million at an attractive valuation of 10 times adjusted EBITDA. The transaction is expected to complete in the third quarter of the fiscal year. Finally, today we announced we expect to return £1.5 billion of the Smith's detection proceeds via the combination of a tender offer or special dividend accompanied by a share buyback programme. This will commence upon the completion of the current programme and continue through calendar year 2027. We will update further on the precise mechanism and timing once the divestment completes. Our balance sheet remains strong with a leverage of 1.2 times as at the end of January, giving us good flexibility to continue investing for growth. We have updated our fiscal year 26 guidance for continuing operations or Smiths. We expect organic revenue growth of 3-4% with momentum building to deliver stronger growth in the second half which is expected to fall within our medium term target range. John Crane enters the second half with good momentum which combined with a strong order book in both OEE and aftermarket supports an improving second half and we expect growth of mid-single digits similar to the second quarter. A positive book to bill gives us good visibility through fiscal year 26 with the recent investments in advanced manufacturing and testing starting to bear fruit. In FlexTech, we expect a stronger second half, driven by continued strength in aerospace, supported by order book visibility and new contract positions. The pace of recovery in US residential construction remains uncertain. However, FlexTech is well positioned to benefit when the market returns. We expect operating profit margin of around 20%, progressing nicely towards our new medium range target, driven by operating leverage, benefits from the acceleration plan and ongoing efficiencies from Smith's excellence. We expect cash conversion to be around the low to mid 90s percent, reflecting continued investment for growth and strong underlying cash generation. Finally, one word on what's happening in Iran and surrounding countries. Our main priority is the safety of our people who work in the region. In half year 26, the Middle East region contributed to around 7% of revenue for SMIS, primarily in John Crane. We are mindful of the uncertainty these events bring and we continue to monitor developments alongside this potential size and duration of any impacts on performance which are not incorporated in our current guidance. In summary, our half year 26 financial results demonstrate a solid delivery, expanding margins and continued discipline on capital allocation. And with that, I'll hand back to Roland.

Firstly, I'll provide an update on our strategic progress. Then I'll turn to the Smiths businesses and the opportunities for continued growth and margin expansion. And I'll end with our people and culture. The defining feature of the first half was the value accretive transformation of our portfolio. We agreed the sales of interconnect and detection ahead of schedule for a total value of 3.3 billion pounds at highly attractive multiples that were above market expectations. These transactions reflect our ongoing commitment to maximize value for shareholders and to sharpen our strategic focus. The regulatory processes are progressing well, with InterConnect close to completion, and we remain on track to complete detection before the end of the calendar year. I would like to express my thanks to all my colleagues for delivering such a great outcome. The proceeds from these two transactions support substantial capital returns. We've already begun returning the InterConnect proceeds through the £1 billion share buyback programme initiated in December. building on the £500 million buyback completed last calendar year. For the detection proceeds, as Julian mentioned, we expect to return a further £1.5 billion. We look forward to sharing the details in due course. In the past four and a half years, we have returned more than £2.3 billion to shareholders via dividends and buybacks. With the remainder of the current buyback and the new programme announced today, there is still more than £2 billion to be returned, continuing through calendar year 2027. Our approach is consistent. Invest for growth, allocate capital smartly and return surplus capital to shareholders efficiently. Following the separations, Smith will be a focused industrial engineering company. We specialise in high-performance technologies in flow control and thermal solutions. We hold leading positions in attractive market sub-segments that are aligned with long-term structural megatrends. We are well regarded for the quality of our products, our technologies and solutions, and we are admired for our skills in customisation, customer service and our ability to help solve customer problems. We have a portfolio of well-known leading brands with a reputation for innovative and reliable products. We have valued customer relationships, which together with our high performing culture and a strong financial profile mean that we are well positioned to grow faster than the market in which we operate. Let me drill a little bit deeper into the growth opportunities in each of our businesses. Around 60% of John Crane operates in the flow control segment of the global energy market, where growth is underpinned by demand for energy security, energy transition and a continuing demand for efficiency and reliability. 40% of John Crane serves other industrial markets, such as mining, which also enjoy similar characteristics. Our growth strategy for John Crane is focused on our particular strengths in downstream and midstream energy. where we see considerable runway before the world reaches peak oil and gas. We also have a leading position in energy transition and are well positioned to take advantage of the high level of growth in areas such as hydrogen, geothermal and carbon capture and storage. In Flextech, while the construction market is soft in the near term, its future prospects remain favourable. we see increased demand for housing, which is expected to expand with population growth and the shortage of single and multifamily homes in the US. In thermal solutions, the industrial electrification trend is a key driver supporting emissions reductions, improved safety and efficiency, and spans industrial markets. Here too, demand is underpinned by customers' desire to have a single, integrated, customised solution. Energy demand is also a key underpin, especially for high performance and efficient heating and cooling. The addition of DRC broadens our position by expanding our heating business into cooling technologies. This adds high growth data center exposure. AI demand supporting the expansion in digital infrastructure. In aerospace, rising air travel driven by increased trade, GDP and population growth supports a continued increase in commercial aircraft production. And heightened security concerns support an increase in defence spending, also increasing demand for new aircraft. In our key end markets, these trends underpin a market CAGR forecast of 4% to 5% over the next decade. Our customer and market-led approach ensures we fully leverage our leading market positions and the underlying growth trends to drive performance and to take advantage of these multi-year tailwinds. Our aim is to continue to deliver above-market growth over the medium term, underpinned by a resilient and recurring revenue base. This provides a strong foundation for sustainable performance. We've set out the initiatives we are focusing on to drive this enhanced growth. Leveraging our existing portfolio and long-term customer relationships. Driving innovation through new product development and commercialisation. Driving commercial operational excellence and accessing higher growth and higher margin market adjacencies, both organically and through targeted acquisitions. We lay out here our strategic approach within each of our businesses and highlight a few examples. In John Crane, we continue to leverage our core energy offering and recent product launches to access new OE investment, especially in gas and energy transition. We see opportunities to drive further aftermarket growth by leveraging our global service network, transitioning a higher proportion into reliability management contracts and applying digital solutions. And we are targeting faster growing geographies such as Latin America. In FlexTech, despite the current low growth environment, we continue to drive the business forward to capture market opportunities. Leveraging our portfolio through our strong distributor relationships, for example, through widening the product lines we offer. We see opportunity to expand our position into more white space in parts of the US and Canada, and developing new products like our Blue Series sealed duct system. In thermal solutions, the addition of DRC brings cooling technologies, widening our addressable market. Here, customers seek tailored solutions and our recent acquisition positions as well. We see greater opportunities for growth as we evolve from a focus on heat and components to systems and integrated platforms to target higher growth areas like data centers. And finally, in aerospace, leveraging our portfolio with aircraft and engine manufacturers to add share on new programs. Accessing higher growth subsegments, for example, defense or repair and service. renegotiating long-term agreements with key aircraft and engine manufacturers, enabling better price capture to augment growth. In fact, across all the businesses, pricing is another key area of focus to ensure we capture the price that reflects the value we deliver for our customers and also underpins future growth. This multifaceted approach ensures that we remain well positioned to outperform in our markets over the medium term, supporting our 5-7% organic revenue growth target. On this slide, we set out some examples of initiatives we have recently executed. John Crane signed a multi-year reliability management agreement with a major energy company, improving equipment reliability and standardising performance across their global operations. FlexTech extended a 30-year partnership with a space customer and is renegotiating its long-term agreements with major aircraft engine manufacturers. These agreements grow and sustain recurring revenues and customer intimacy across the cycles. In innovation, John Crane recently launched its coaxial separation seal, which sets a new benchmark in its category and has had positive take-up. FlexTech's Blue Series offers enhanced emission control and ease of installation and has been well received by customers. Operationally, investments in automation and machinery upgrades, most notably at John Crane, improves delivery and lead times. This helps us capture orders, earn price and expand market share, supporting growth. And finally, market adjacencies. Here we have initiated our thermal solution strategy to access high growth market subsegments. Let me turn to our recently announced acquisition, which supports this approach. We're scaling FlexTech into high growth cooling applications with the agreement to acquire DRC heat transfer. DRC designs custom heat transfer and cooling solutions for data centers, general industrial, transit and energy. It serves blue chip customers and brings deep engineering expertise and a strong service culture. It builds on last year's acquisition of Watco, which expanded our heat business across the temperature spectrum. Strategically, DRC adds heat removal and cooling to FlexTech's industrial heat portfolio. It increases our addressable market and creates clear cross-selling opportunities for our heating technologies. It is aligned with the data center expansion and power backup applications, both attractive structural trends with a strong growth outlook. This is disciplined accretive growth and aligned with our strategy of accessing high growth market adjacencies. Turning now to margins, supporting the delivery of our medium term target of 21 to 23% is our acceleration plan, where we have updated the benefits and costs for Smiths. We now expect 30 to 35 million pounds of annualised benefits in fiscal year 2027 and beyond for 40 to 45 million of cost. Around half the benefits are expected to be achieved this fiscal year. We highlight here some of the initiatives underway in both John Crane and FlexTech, and we are also working on programs to maintain our central costs at 1.5 to 1.7% of revenue. These are all examples of our strategy in action that will propel us towards our medium term targets. We are reshaping Smiths into a focused, faster growing, higher margin company with clear growth pillars, high margin and returns, disciplined capital allocation and substantial value creation potential. Fiscal year 2026 represents a transition year as we reposition the portfolio and we remain confident in our ability to reach the enhanced through cycle medium term targets. We continue to make progress towards these targets, supported by our disciplined, balanced approach to capital allocation. This is how we will deliver enhanced returns and support a premium rating for Smiths. Our performance rests on the same foundations that have driven us forward throughout our history. Firstly, product and service innovation that delivers reliability, efficiency and safety for our customers. We are bolstering our approach here to be even more agile and purposeful, deploying innovation roadmaps by product, technology, processes and materials to ensure we capture market opportunities. For example, capturing electrification momentum and rising high temperature applications for Flextech and leveraging John Crane's extreme condition seals and energy transition applications. Second, a high performing culture with clear accountability and ownership. As part of this, a strong safety culture is critical and keeping our people safe is our number one priority. I wasn't satisfied in our safety record performance in the half. A number of targeted activities, including safety stand downs, are being implemented to drive improvements for the second half to ensure that we focus on delivering a zero harm culture. Third, operational excellence. With our Smith's Excellence framework driving continuous improvement to ensure lean and effective operational execution, 1,500 colleagues have taken our Smith's Excellence Yellow Belt training, broadening the reach wider and deeper into the business. And all of it underpinned by our Smith's values, which we have recently refreshed. These foundations are what bind us together to remain focused on delivering value for all our stakeholders. So, in summary, we have delivered excellent strategic progress, unlocking notable value in the portfolio. We delivered another solid half in terms of financial performance with a momentum into the second half, also supported by our strong order book. We expect four-year organic revenue performance of 3% to 4%, with second half growth ahead of that in the first and within our medium-term target range. We expect an operating profit margin of around 20%. We are deploying capital in a disciplined manner in growth and value accretive acquisitions and see further opportunities on this front while enabling sizable capital returns. We are well positioned in structurally growing end markets with attractive demand trends and are leveraging our strengths and capabilities to outperform this market growth. We are confident that Smiths is well positioned to continue unlocking significant value and enhance returns to shareholders. Thank you for listening. Julian and I are now happy to take your questions.

We are now going to proceed with our first question. and the questions come from the line of Ashatan Mahesharajah from JP Morgan. Do you have a question?

Morning, guys, and thanks for taking my questions. I've got two, please, both on John Crane. The first is just the guidance, the second half, and the meeting was and industrial as well amongst that and also you know is the order book that you have sort of fully underpinned the second half, is there more that needs to come in, do you just do a reference and sort of go around that sort of thing with your guide to the second half and the second question couple of weeks. Since that sort of kicked off, so I guess sort of any early thoughts, what are you seeing there currently, what are you seeing broadly, globally, elsewhere, and I guess how should we think about both the short term and the potential applications as well, and I guess also in the aftermarket there, I guess where the old press where it is, I know you've just spoken, talked about a range Thank you very much for the questions.

So I think picking up on that first part of your question about H2 and the momentum that we're seeing coming into H2 in John Crane. So we saw in Q2 the strength of Q2. We're definitely seeing that momentum carrying into the second half. We see that visibility through our order book, so that's our order book both for OE but also for aftermarket. One needs to sort of recall that actually we see a lot more than just our order book because we're being asked to quote on aspects, we're being asked to be involved in the designs as well. We've got a robust order book supporting that. Our operational performance, if you've seen, has now really picked up after the challenges we had earlier. So that combination of our ability to deliver within the lead times that we wanted to get to and the fact that we've got that order book both in OE and aftermarket and we still see a lot of activity in the market gives us that visibility. So heavily underpinned. There is always a book and burn, as I would say, so orders that do come in associated with aftermarket, associated with spares, so that continues at a healthy rate as well. So you can see why that we are entering this period within the context that isn't the Middle East crisis in a very robust position for John Crane. So finally dealt with our operational issues and moving forward robustly on that. So we're very pleased with that and you've already seen and we've evidenced that in Q2 and we believe that. in the world that doesn't have the Middle East in it, that's a very robust aspect. I think on the Middle East, obviously the thoughts first go to our people. We have many hundreds of people in the Middle East, both within John Crane and within Smith Detection. And those are people who are based in our service centres, they're people who are based, service engineers who are based at airports in the case of Smith Detection. and customer sites in the case of John Crane. So we are doing everything that we can in the situation going forward. From the point of view of Middle East for Smiths as a whole in H1 to give you a sense of where we are represented 7% of our revenues. For John Crane itself, it represented 12% of revenues. There's no doubt that if one was quite myopic about energy and the impact on John Crane, there is noise. We've got customers who need things very quickly. We've got customers who are focused on maintaining their operations. We've got customers who are shutting down their operations in a managed manner. So there will be noise coming into the system within the very short term. In the long term, I think we've sort of pretty much moved past the energy trilemma, and it really is all about how you deliver that energy security. And I think if you think of that as a backdrop for John Crane, which is all about reliability, safety, security for our customers' supply, Over time, we're going to have to be there for the demands that are coming from our customers, whether those are customers in the Middle East trying to repair, rebuild, and maintain, or whether that's our customers globally who will have to deal with short-term, medium-term shortages. That ultimately means that we will have to work harder and we'll have to have to deliver more to our customers. In the short term, I think we're all grappling with the different messages coming out from the Middle East. I think if you step back, though, I think that's the sort of more important part of that. perspective which is what does this have as an effect on the globe from the point of view of the industrialization and GDP. So I mean I think we're all sitting there wondering what does that mean in terms of supply chains, in terms of energy costs in terms of raw materials that are reliant on energy. So I think that's a broader question which I'm not really the best person to ask on that. But I think we are very ready for those challenges. If you recall the acceleration plan which we're a substantial way through and we're already seeing half the benefits in this fiscal year and we'll see the full benefits in next fiscal year. I think you've seen us build a resilient but agile cost base within that as well. So we feel very well set up, not only to support our direct customers, but also to flex with their needs, whether that moves to the U.S., whether that's more deliveries into the Middle East or Asia. So absolutely, our short-term, Our focus here is supporting the customers and making sure that where their infrastructure has been damaged, impacted, that we make sure that we're as responsive as possible. There will be some sort of movements within that robust order book. We recognise that and we will be flexible to that. I would sort of then step back and say think about John Crane as the shape of the business. That aftermarket is over 70% of the business. So I think what you're seeing there is the fact that's the most resilient sort of part of the market. It's difficult not to look after your equipment. even when it's not being fully utilised or even when you're going through a shutdown or bringing those back up. So that's a very robust piece of our business model. And then stepping through, you asked about industrial, and we should look at that from the aspect of 40% of John Crane is industrial. is industrial, so not directly related to that oil and gas energy market. So we saw weakness in oversupply in China for the chemicals. We're seeing that actually we're seeing recovery there for the second half, notwithstanding that we obviously need to get a better understanding from the point of view of feedstocks and the like. So we believe that the industrial will be a positive for us within our present guidance. Hopefully that answers your question.

Thank you.

We are now going to proceed with our next question. And the questions come from Jonathan Hearn from Barclays. Please ask your question.

Hey guys, good morning. Just two questions for me. Firstly, can I just come back to John Crane in the Middle East? Obviously you're talking to sort of 5% growth in John Crane in the second half. Can you just tell us how much of the order book that's going to be delivered in H2 actually comes from the Middle East? That was the first question. to your revenue bridge and obviously pricing is in that. I think you talked about John Crane pricing being positive, but obviously you're seeing headwinds in FlexTech pricing. Can you just talk us through what you're seeing in FlexDeck and are we going to continue to see a headwind to pricing going forward please? Thank you. Yes.

So, as I think we all know, I'm not keen on talking specifics on order books apart from giving you guidance about whether they're strong or not because they can be misleading. I will give you the guidance of what I mentioned earlier, which is 12% of the first half was in the Middle East for John Crane. So that gives you the kind of indication of what happens for us, which is essentially 7% of Smiths. So that's the sort of guidance I'll give you on the order book. We've seen a mixture of order intake Over the half, we saw very strong growth, for example, in Latin America. We saw growth in the US. And so we already had a little bit of a quiet time in the Middle East. So I think we feel that that order book has enough substance to take us through to our guidance on that. But obviously we're not guiding for that particular Middle East part of that. On revenue, yes, we still are very active. I mean, we really do have those muscles very, very well exercised on pricing, ensuring we are getting paid for appropriate levels of prices, as I mentioned, for our product and the value that we bring to the customer. We do see positive pricing going through the John Crane business. We believe that we will continue to see that pricing go through the business. So, If you then go through the aspects of FlexTech, yes, our pricing is the thinnest in FlexTech construction, and we'll see that continue to be very thin because of the market conditions, while the market conditions continue as they were, and we haven't put any sort of guidance or any upturn in construction in our second half. although you saw us overperform against the market in FY financial year 2025. And you saw a sort of level with the market in the first half of FY fiscal year 2026. So you could see that as headwinds in there. We also had a mixed effect in there, which you'd have seen the Midrex contractors as well. But the other aspects of FlexTech, so thermal and the aerospace, we're seeing positive price in those aspects. And specifically, we're seeing not only significant growth in the aerospace business, but we're also seeing significant pricing power within that growth as well.

Great. Thank you very much.

We are now going to proceed with our next question. And the questions come from the line of Martin Wilkie from Citi. Please ask your question.

Yeah, thank you. Good morning. It's Martin from Citi. Just to come back to FlexTech. Obviously, you made an acquisition this morning with DRC and also a small exit. But you've also given us some better disclosure, more disclosure, I should say, in terms of that split of revenue now splitting out thermal solutions separately. Is there a signal here in terms of more acquisitions, in terms of growing that business, when obviously in the past people thought about FlexTech as being very driven by construction and aerospace and there's obviously quite a structural sort of improvement in some of the other thermal markets like data centers and so forth just understand just this combination of both the acquisition plus this increased disclosure inside flex tech is there a signal there that we should expect more capital to go into that area just in terms of looking at some of these faster growth areas or flex tech thank you so if you step back and and

review what we said in our strategy. Our strategy is all about moving into this very focus in industrial business and pointing ourselves to those higher margin, higher growth parts of the portfolio. We also stated that we would go through that high grading, and you saw that action, and we've been very transparent now, so you can see through into Smithscope going forward. So that's what we've said. What do we believe that the growth trends, the mega trends are? We are... believers in the electrification, we see the benefits of electrification not only from the efficiency but also from the effectiveness that electrification gives people in their processes. So we believe that electrification is continuing to drive forward. And that's definitely an area where I'm very excited from the point of view of how do we differentiate ourselves so we will continue to develop and pick up new technologies within that area. So we're very positive about all our markets. We are specifically positive about the area that's thermal, so this heating, cooling aspect of the business. DRC comes, we saw that the multiple, we thought we paid a good multiple for a business which will be accretive to us over the long term, both in growth and in margin. So we're excited that we've got exposure to data centres, which I think everybody is, but we're really more excited that we're starting to offer We started with heating elements and then we did subsystems and now we do systems for people really to support their processes. And we see that we bought Watco, we had Shoreheat, we had Farnham, all building off that really solid Tuckco foundation and now we've added DRC. We're very positive in this area of the market and it does deserve focus which is why we've brought it out. We're also very positive that over the long term construction will recover and also we're experiencing exceptional performance both market driven but also because of our customer focus and intimacy in FlexTech aerospace as well. So we keep making good capital allocation decisions, whether those are capital allocation decisions on internal R&D or whether those are capital allocations all the way through to acquisition or, as you've seen, to returning capital to our shareholders.

Thanks. In terms of potential further acquisition, I guess simplistically, if you get 1.85 billion of net proceeds from detection, the 1.5 billion buyback, you've also done the deal today. It seems like you still have some firepower for some similar-sized deals. Is that the right way to think about it, or how should we think about your pipeline for M&A over the next year or so?

I think I'll let Julian, as we haven't heard from Julian yet, answer that question.

Yes, I mean, thank you, Roland. I mean, the model of using small bolt-ons to enhance our strategic focus, to drive accretive growth and profitability has been successful over the last few years, and particularly in FlexTech. So we do anticipate that model continuing as evidenced by DRC. You know, and yes, within our balance sheet, we've got the flexibility to do that. whilst delivering an appropriate level of leverage and balance sheet efficiency. So that's the model, and we hope to continue with it. Great. Thank you very much.

We are now going to proceed with our next question. And the question comes from the land of Christian Hinderaker from Coleman Sachs. Please ask your question.

I want to start with FlexTech, if I may, and the results obviously taking us up to the end of January. I appreciate we're now sort of starting the spring season in U.S. construction, or at least normally would be. I wonder if you could perhaps share any thoughts on the run rates you've seen as we've entered Feb, March. Have we seen a pickup in terms of the spring activity levels? or perhaps has there been any issues in terms of the challenging weather over in North America?

Our guidance that we put out there about the growth rate is well aligned with what we're seeing in the order intake from FlexTech. Yes, we have had a little bit of weather, but I think that's behind us. And as you know, there is seasonality, less seasonality than there was because of the way that the house building has sort of moved down into the more sort of temperate areas of the US. And we specifically sort of driven both our organic and our inorganic approach to take advantage of that. So we believe that the business is performing as we anticipate to be able to deliver our guidance on that.

Thank you, Renan. Maybe to come back to the Middle East exposure in John Crane, I appreciate it's obviously a complex and concerning scenario. in particular for people on the ground. My question is less around the guidance and maybe more how we should think about the mechanics or operational effects. I'm sure the John Crane business over the years has supported many clients with managing force majeures in the past. What does that look like operationally? If we have a downstream facility that's shutting operations, do you need to have people move in to support that? What impact does that have on seal? Where typically, you know, how do we think about the mechanics in such events?

Yeah, so, yeah, absolutely, we should think about our people, but also their families there as well. So that is absolutely to say, Christian, top of our minds. It is complex, but... One can simplify this to a great extent, and we've all experienced this personally. I'm sure when you shut things down and when you turn things back on, that is the point. Things don't generally break as they run. Things break when they are switched on and when they are switched off, notwithstanding wear and tear. This is a point where it's very important for us to be there with our customers to make sure we're not only talking about efficiency, we're talking about safety, safe shutdowns, and trying to protect the equipment as much as possible. If one imagines this system, a good analogy for this, is the fuse in many of these plants is essentially what we make. We make the seal. If they want to sacrifice something within the plant, it is going to be the seal. They don't want to sacrifice the compressor or the pump because of the relative cost. we are there as almost a safety valve from that point of view. So any exposure of this to damage from heat, damage from the fact that it hasn't been run correctly, that the support system hasn't been fully operational, which is our system's business, will cause the seal to have to be refreshed or replaced. So that's the business. So we are in a much, much better position than we were operationally on our machining, on our lead times, on our agility. So we will be working with those customers who will want more spare parts just in case because they feel they might be cut off for a while. They might have to shut something down and bring it back up. And that's... for John Crane, a very important part of our model, this customer intimacy, the knowledge that we are always there for them, and the fact that we will produce these spare parts for them and keep them running. So much as one would never like to say that this is a positive situation, ultimately, from a commercial point of view, this is relatively positive for us.

I'll just add that in those facilities in other parts of the world that are having to meet the gap in demand, you also see them working to much higher capacity, and that is also supportive of our aftermarket business as we support our customers through them doing that process. Very helpful. Thanks, both.

We are now going to proceed with our next question. And the questions come from the line of Andrew Douglas from Jefferies. Please ask your question.

Good morning, guys. Thank you for your time. Most of my questions have been answered, but I've just got two quick ones. Can you explain to us how you got to the $1.5 billion in terms of return of cash to shareholders? I appreciate we're going to get more details, hopefully, with the finals. But 1.5 billion was a little bit below what I expected. So I would just be keen to understand how you got to that number. And then just going back to FlexTech, I'm sorry to labour the point there. It looks like you did about minus four organic in the second quarter. And we're now assuming that goes back to kind of modest levels of growth in the second half of the year. And I understand that there's lots of moving parts. you know, destocking coming to an end, but that might be offset by that large contract that finished. Can you just explain to us how we get that plus two? Is that market plus two with a combination of commercial aerospace, strong market in U.S. construction flat? I'm just trying to understand the dynamics and potential downside risk if the housing market doesn't come back in the second half. Thank you.

We'd like to take the first piece about the 1.5 billion return.

Yes, so the 1.5 billion is, just to be clear, is a reference to the detection proceeds, which we announced as a valuation of 2 billion, but of course the net proceeds will be lower than that. The return is roughly 75% of the valuation. Clearly We've used some of that capital for the DRC acquisition, and we're trying to model this in such a way that we deliver on all variables in terms of efficient balance sheet, appropriate level of leverage, continuing our model of bolt-on M&A that we talked about earlier, and indeed the kind of balance of operating cash flows and dividend outflows that we'd see across the next 18-month period. So it's largely a balancing act of all of those elements.

And then I'll pick up on the FlexSec question. We have a very strong order book and very, very high level of very visible order book in FlexTech Aerospace. So we are very much in operational mode. We're seeing those long-term contracts come in. We're seeing pricing come in on those contracts as well. So we have a very robust aerospace business. So we will see that continue to accelerate on the deliveries there. From the point of view of construction, we haven't baked in a massive upturn in construction. So we believe that we're well placed to deliver from what we see, the run rates that we have. And then with the thermal solutions part, we did have that large single event of destocking that affected some of our heat kits, which won't repeat. So that's why we end up in that region that you're indicating for the second half and therefore for the full year.

Okay, thank you.

As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 1 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 1 again. Once again, it's star 1 1 to register a question. We are now going to proceed with our next question. And the questions come from the line of Alex Hannan from Panmure Liberum. Please ask your question.

Good morning, gentlemen. Just one question from me on FlexTech. On the part of the FlexTech industrial portfolio that you've proposed to exit, where are you with completing those disposals and just thinking ahead, are you happy with the FlexTech portfolio post those disposals and obviously absent any other acquisitions or is there more to do? Thank you.

Yes, thanks Alex. So the decision to divest part of the FlexTech industrial portfolio is very much consistent with our portfolio model. We want to focus capital in higher growth, high margin areas. We've got parts of the portfolio that are a little dilutive to us. So this decision effectively reflects us doing that and coming out of some of those non-core businesses. So, of those divestments that we are taking the opportunity to classify as discontinued, one of those processes is reasonably well progressed. The other two will proceed as we come from here, but we have the confidence we'll be able to execute those as we go through the next six to 12 months. To the second part of your question there, I mean, you know, we'll continue to evaluate the portfolio. You know, we see the opportunities that Roland pointed out before, particularly in the area of thermal solutions and that growth accretion that we see there. But equally, the roll-up strategy we've had in construction still has opportunity, and we'd see, you know, opportunity there to push that forward. And equally the same in aerospace. I think we've demonstrated we know how to run a really high-quality aerospace business, so we continue to look for opportunity there. But, look, we're happy with the FlexTech portfolio, and we'll keep operating as we have been.

That's perfect. Thank you very much.

There are no further questions at this time, so I'll now hand back to Roland for closing remarks.

So thank you very much for all the questions. So as you can see, we've delivered excellent strategic progress. We've unlocked a notable value in the portfolio. We've delivered another solid half in terms of financial performance with momentum into the second half. We continue to deploy capital in a disciplined manner while enabling those sizeable capital returns that you've heard, so that further £1.5 billion return announced today. So we are well positioned in structurally growing and attractive markets and we are well positioned to continue significant value creation for our shareholders. Thank you very much.