Johnson Matthey cuts sale price of CT division by over a quarter to £1.3bn
Johnson had originally struck a deal in May to sell its CT arm to Honeywell for £1.8 billion including debts.
Speciality chemicals firm Johnson Matthey has agreed to slash the sale price of its Catalyst Technologies (CT) business by more than a quarter to £1.33 billion and extended the deadline for the unit’s takeover by Honeywell International.
Johnson had originally struck a deal in May to sell its CT arm to Honeywell for £1.8 billion including debts, which would have delivered net proceeds to investors of around £1.6 billion.
The pair have extended the deadline for the deal to complete and said they have cut the price by 26% to £1.33 billion “to reflect CT’s business performance during 2025/26, which includes the deferral of key sustainable solutions licensing projects and reduced profitability from the supply of catalysts due to the challenging market environment”.
Johnson now expects to return around £1 billion in net proceeds of the deal to shareholders through an £800 million special dividend and £200 million share buyback programme.
Shares in Johnson tumbled 16% in morning trading on Monday after the announcement.
The price cut follows reports over the weekend that Honeywell was considering walking away from the deal due to worries over regulatory approvals and business milestones.
The firms have pushed back the deadline for approvals and closing conditions of the deal to be met from February 21 to July 21, with the option for it to be further extended to August 21, with expectations for the sale to complete by the end of August.
The sale of CT, which designs and produces catalysts for the chemicals and energy industries, had sent Johnson Matthey’s shares surging since being announced, with the stock up by nearly 60% in the past year before Monday’s announcement.
The sale is part of Johnson’s efforts to turn around the business by focusing on clean air and platinum group metal chemicals.
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