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(Sharecast News) - Engineering firm Rotork has agreed to be bought by Swiss engineering company ABB in a 4.1bn deal.
Under the terms of the acquisition announced on Thursday, ABB will pay 506p per share in cash. This comprises 503p and a dividend of up to 3p. This represents a premium of 73% to the closing Rotork share price on Wednesday.
Rotork is expected to operate as a separate division within ABB's Automation business under a strategic growth mandate. ABB said the acquisition would add 3% to group revenue and 12% to the revenues of its Automation business for the financial year ended 31 December 2025.
ABB said Rotork's mission-critical flow control and instrumentation solutions are highly complementary to its automation portfolio, strengthening the company's position at the field-device layer and enhancing the "sense-control-act" automation loop.
It also said that Rotork would expand ABB's automation offering for large and complex industrial and infrastructure applications, while increasing exposure to "attractive" end markets and improving the mix of ABB's Automation business area through higher-margin products, services and lifecycle revenues.
Rotork chair Dorothy Thompson said: "The combination brings together two companies whose purposes are closely aligned, with a shared focus on automation and electrification to enable more sustainable and efficient operations.
"The Rotork board believes that ABB's decentralised operating model and commitment to run Rotork as a separate division will benefit the Rotork Group's business, employees and wider stakeholders. As a result, the Rotork board has unanimously agreed to recommend the offer to Rotork shareholders."
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