ABB has agreed a recommended £4.1 billion cash acquisition of Rotork Plc sending the FTSE 250 flow-control specialist’s shares sharply higher on Thursday.
Shares in Rotork (LSE:ROR) were trading at 484.4p on Thursday morning, up 66.6% from Wednesday’s close of 290.8p, having earlier touched an intraday high of 485.4p. According to price data, the stock had spent the past year inside a 52-week range of 286.4p to 393.6p, and had fallen as low as 286.4p just two trading days before the announcement. Even after Thursday’s surge, shares remain below the value of ABB’s cash offer.
The Offer
Under the terms announced on Thursday, ABB, through its subsidiary ABB Automation Holding UK Limited, will pay 506p in cash for each Rotork share, made up of 503p in cash plus a possible additional dividend of up to 3p that shareholders can also keep. That is a 73.0% premium to Wednesday’s closing price and values Rotork’s entire issued and to be issued share capital at approximately £4.1bn, equivalent to about 19.5 times Rotork’s adjusted EBITDA for the year ended 31 December 2025, according to the companies’ joint announcement.
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The Rotork board, advised by J.P. Morgan Cazenove, Rothschild & Co and Jefferies, intends to unanimously recommend the deal. According to the announcement, ABB’s initial unsolicited proposal of 430p per share was rejected by the Rotork board as not reflecting an appropriate valuation; three further proposals followed before the two sides settled on 506p.
The takeover comes after a difficult few months for Rotork shares, which fell from a February 2026 high near 393.6p amid a subdued outlook in its Oil & Gas division and project delays linked to unrest in the Middle East, flagged in the company’s May trading update. Rotork reported full-year 2025 revenue of £777 million and an adjusted operating margin of 24.6%, with 6% order growth, as its “Growth+” strategy continued to deliver.
ABB chief executive Morten Wierod said the deal reflects “the compelling strategic fit of the transaction that will expand our automation offering at the field device layer.” Rotork chair Dorothy Thompson said the offer “reflects the high quality of Rotork and recognises the significant progress delivered through the successful implementation of our Growth+ strategy.”
The acquisition will be implemented via a court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement, subject to shareholder votes, court sanction and antitrust clearances, with a Long Stop Date of 16 July 2027. ABB expects the deal to complete in the first half of 2027, after which Rotork would operate as a separate division within ABB’s Automation business area, retaining its Bath headquarters. Shareholders now face a lengthy wait for regulatory and court approvals before the deal can close.