News Release

9 November 2022

SMITHS GROUP PLC - Q1 TRADING UPDATE

Pioneers of progress - improving our world through smarter engineering

Strong first quarter showing continued progress on growth strategy

Smiths Group plc ("Smiths" or "the Group") today announces its trading statement for the first quarter of FY2023. 

Following a strong FY2022, as expected Smiths further accelerated growth in the first quarter of FY2023, delivering +13.2% organic¹ revenue growth for the three months to the end of October 2022. This positive start to the year reinforces the Group's confidence in its full year guidance of 4-4.5% organic revenue growth with moderate margin improvement, balancing strong business momentum with continued macro uncertainty, supply challenges and stronger comparators through the rest of the financial year.

All businesses delivered organic revenue growth in the first quarter:

·    John Crane posted steady growth in the quarter, with growth across both its Energy and Industrials segments. Order growth remains strong, but supplier shortages also continue, impacting revenue conversion.

·    Smiths Detection delivered strong growth across both Aviation and Other Security Systems supported by its large order book and benefitting from phasing of deliveries in the first quarter. The good start to the year reinforces the guidance of a return to growth for the full year.

·    Flex-Tek delivered continued strong growth in the quarter. Growth in our aerospace business remains strong, as does growth in our construction business, although consistent with market forecasts, we expect this to moderate as the year progresses.

·    Smiths Interconnect delivered solid growth for the quarter. Growth in our semiconductor business remains strong, although consistent with market forecasts, we expect this to moderate as the year progresses, balanced by continued growth in satellite communications. 

Paul Keel, Group Chief Executive, commented:

"We are pleased with our strong start to the fiscal year, building on a successful FY22 and maintain guidance of 4-4.5% organic revenue growth with moderate margin improvement for FY23. My thanks to our committed and talented teams around the world who continue to navigate macro challenges to deliver for our customers.  

We are executing well against the strategy we outlined last fall and look forward to providing further details on our progress at our Capital Markets Event tomorrow, the materials for which will be posted on our website."

Share buyback

As at the end of Q1, we have returned £617m of the £742m share buyback programme which was announced on 11 November 2021. At the current run-rate and share price, the programme is expected to complete in early calendar 2023. 

HY2023 results

Smiths will publish its results for the six months ending 31 January 2023 on Friday 24 March 2023.

Legal Entity Identifier (LEI): 213800MJL6IPZS3ASA11

About Smiths Group

For over 170 years, Smiths Group has been pioneering progress by improving the world through smarter engineering. We serve millions of people every year, to help create a safer, more efficient and better-connected world, across four major global markets:  Energy, General Industry, Safety & Security and Aerospace. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Smiths employs over 14,700 colleagues in over 50 countries. For more information visit www.smiths.com.