果冻传媒

Smiths Group (SMIN) has finalised terms for the 拢2bn sale of its Smiths Detection arm to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners.

The deal values the detection business, which makes scanners used at airports and security checkpoints, at a multiple of 16 times its FY2025 operating profit of 拢122mn.

The transaction still needs to clear regulatory hurdles, but Smiths expects to receive 拢1.85bn cash when it completes in the second half of 2025.

Aston Martin Lagonda (AML) is planning to sell the rights to use its name to the Aston Martin F1 team for 拢50mn to an entity controlled by executive chair Lawrence Stroll.

Permission to name the car, and 鈥渃ertain related branding rights鈥� have been sold in perpetuity to AMR GP Holdings, controlled by Stroll.

The heavily indebted supercar maker said it would use the money to 鈥渆nhance the group鈥檚 liquidity position鈥�. It also warned that results for 2025, due next week, will show an adjusted loss figure that is worse than analysts have forecast, despite cost-cutting measures.

Aston Martin will hold a shareholder meeting to vote on the proposal, but said three major shareholders with combined holdings of more than 52 per cent of the company will vote in favour of the deal. This includes the Yew Tree Consortium led by Stroll, which owns about a third of Aston Martin鈥檚 shares.

Defence company Chemring鈥檚 (CHG) share price dipped after it said that trading would be weighted more heavily towards the second half of its financial year.

Although it kept full-year guidance unchanged, it said the UK market had been disrupted by ongoing delays to the publication of the government鈥檚 Defence Investment Plan. Its order intake in the first quarter was less than a third of last year鈥檚, at 拢122mn, but the overall size of its order book remained flat at 拢1.36bn.

Chemring also highlighted 鈥渙perational disruption鈥� in its US countermeasures business, where it has been automating production at the Kilgore Flares site in Tennessee. Once complete, the value of its 鈥渓egacy operations鈥� will be written down. The shares fell 4 per cent.

Anglo American (AAL) has already agreed the transformational deal its competitors are looking for, meaning the focus returns to its operations.

Within the current portfolio of mines, last year proved a mixed bag, with higher copper prices helping balance out a production drop and difficulties in the up-for-sale coal units. 

There has been a two-thirds drop in the total dividend paid for the year, to 23c per share.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were $6.4bn (拢4.8bn) for the year, up 2 per cent on 2024 when compared with continuing operations, and in line with analyst forecasts. Anglo鈥檚 copper mines provided the lion鈥檚 share of this profit, with $4bn, up from $3.8bn in 2024. 

Profits for the discontinued operations were just under $300mn because of the stop to production at the Moranbah North mine in March and lower coal prices. Reported profit was hit by a $2.3bn impairment on De Beers, which also reported a $511mn cash loss in 2025. 

This new impairment takes the total balance sheet writedowns on the diamond mining and marketing business to almost $7bn in the past three years. The carrying value of De Beers has gone from $7.6bn at the end of 2023 to $2.3bn as at 31 December.  

Anglo鈥檚 merger with Teck Resources (CA:TECK.B) is set to complete late this year or early 2027, and has already received important regulator approvals.