Essentra (LON: ESNT) has sold its filters business and intends to distribute £150m to shareholders. That could be around 49p a share. The share price rose 27.9p to 210.5p.
The filters business is being bought by a business controlled by the Markus family. The total enterprise value of the deal is £262.1m, which includes £42.1m to consolidate existing joint ventures. The business had an operating profit of £28.2m in the 12-months to June 2022.
There will initially be £200m paid in cash with a further £20m deferred. Some of that cash will be paid into the pension scheme and to pay off US debt. The deal depends on shareholder approval.
The sale of the packaging division to Mayr-Meinhof has completed and that brought in £312m. The Indian packaging business was sold separately.
Scott Fawcett is taking over from Paul Forman as chief executive. Essentra will be debt free after the disposals and distributing the cash to shareholders.
Esentra was previously known as Filtrona and it was demerged from Bunzl in June 2005. The company will focus on the components business, which has clients in industrial, retail displays, transport and automotive sectors.
