Smiths Group plc has reached an agreement to divest John Crane’s Bearings business to Austria’s Miba AG in a US$35 million deal.
The Bearings business manufactures and maintains hydrodynamic bearings for the power generation, oil & gas and general industrial markets. Bearings had revenue of US$56 million in the year ended 31 July 2017, accounting for around 5% of John Crane’s total revenue.
Smiths says that this divestment is part of its ongoing corporate programme to concentrate the portfolio on scalable market leading positions in the company’s chosen markets.
“This divestment shows further progress in focusing Smiths Group’s portfolio as we reposition ourselves for long-term growth in markets where we can build leading positions,” said Andy Reynolds Smith, chief executive of Smiths Group. “John Crane is now a more focused business leveraging its technology leadership and service network of over 200 sites across the globe.”
John Crane, which sold its Artificial Lift business in 2016, designs and manufactures a range of products including mechanical seals and systems, couplings, filtration systems and predictive digital monitoring technologies.
The Bearings sale is expected to be completed by the end of March 2018.
