Goodwin has confirmed it may sell a substantial part of its mechanical engineering division, and the announcement names the five businesses inside it
The announcement is five short paragraphs, and one of them is a list of names.
Goodwin PLC told the market at 07:14 on Friday that its board notes recent press speculation about the potential sale of parts of the Mechanical Engineering division, and that it has commenced a strategic review. The options under that review include the potential sale of a substantial part of the division. The company then names what the division includes: GSC, GI, Noreva, Easat and Pumps.
Rothschild and Co is advising the board. Discussions are ongoing, and the announcement states that there can be no certainty that a transaction will be entered into.
What is not in it
No buyer is named. No price, no valuation and no timetable appear anywhere, and the word substantial is left undefined, so a reader cannot tell from the document whether it means most of the division or a third of it.
The Refractory Engineering division, the group's other reporting division in its own March update, is not mentioned at all.
Nor is any reason given. The board says it commenced the review to consider a range of potential options to maximise value for shareholders whilst ensuring continuity for all stakeholders, including customers, and the long-term prosperity of its businesses. That is the whole of the stated rationale, and it is the company's own wording rather than an explanation of what changed.
Two of the five names have appeared before
Goodwin published a trading update on 23 March. It put the group firm fixed orderbook at 288 million pounds at the end of February, and it disclosed two lost tenders in the Mechanical Engineering division. Easat lost a competition for 20 coastal radar antennas and transceivers, 7.5 metres each, worth about 18 million euros, for installations off the Estonian coast. Goodwin International lost a Sellafield tender with a bid value above 45 million pounds.
Easat and Goodwin International are two of the five businesses named on Friday. Neither document links the two events, and neither is offered here as an explanation of the other.
The same March update said none of the valves then on order for LNG facilities in the Middle East or the United States had been cancelled or put on manufacturing hold, and that on certain large Middle East contracts the group had been asked to delay dispatch. On the refractory side it described trading conditions as broadly unchanged, with high gold and silver prices weighing on confidence in the jewellery casting market.
Friday's announcement was released as inside information under the Market Abuse Regulation. The person named as responsible for releasing it is Jenny Martin, the company secretary.
