ABB agrees to buy Rotork for about £4.1bn in its largest ever acquisition

ABB agreed to buy Rotork, the British maker of industrial valve actuators, in a recommended cash offer that values Rotork at about £4.136bn. The deal is ABB's largest ever. Shareholders would receive 506 pence a share, made up of 503 pence in cash and a permitted dividend of up to 3 pence, a 73.0 percent premium to Rotork's closing price of 290.8 pence on July 15. ABB set out the terms on Thursday. The transaction is structured as a scheme of arrangement under the UK Companies Act, and Rotork's directors said they intend to recommend it unanimously to shareholders. ABB, the Swiss automation and electrification group, said the price works out to about 19.5 times Rotork's adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation for the year to December 2025, and that it expects to complete in the first half of 2027, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.