Smiths Group is pressing ahead with plans to spin off its medical division in a London listing that is expected to value the unit at close to £3 billion. Having first detailed the long-expected plan in November, the FTSE 100 engineer said today that it was aiming to complete the process by the first half of next year, subject to the approval of its shareholders. It said that demerging its medical devices arm would enable it to concentrate in full on developing as an industrial technology group. Smiths was founded in 1851 when Samuel Smith opened a jewellers in south London. Now a vast conglomerate, it has interests ranging from John Crane, its energy business, to Smiths Detection, which specialises in security and its Interconnect…

Source: The Times March 22, 2019 09:11 UTC