Record profits lead to £200m share buyback scheme for IMI
Engineering giant IMI has reported record profits that are fuelling a £200m share buyback programme.
In its preliminary results for 2024, the Solihull-based firm saw profit before tax reach £419m, an 8% increase on the prior year, whilst revenue climbed to £2.2bn.
Following the strong performance in 2024, IMI has announced a further £200m share buyback programme after it executed a £100m programme last year.
IMI had been hit by a cyber security threat at the beginning of the month, but confirmed it had now returned to normal operations after containing the threat.
The impact was largely limited to temporary operational disruption and is expected to report an adjusting item of between £20m and £25m in 2025 for matters including IT systems recovery, risk management, upgraded IT infrastructure and advisory costs.
Daniel Shook, IMI’s CFO, will step down from the board in August 2025 for family reasons and will be replaced by Luke Grant, Vice President of Finance for Industrial Automation.
Lord Smith of Kelvin stepped down as Chair on 31 December 2024, after nearly ten years at IMI. He has been succeeded as Chair by Jamie Pike.
Roy Twite, Chief Executive, said: “2024 has been another strong year for IMI, with record profits, good organic growth and strong cash generation. We delivered 4% organic sales growth and 10% adjusted operating profit growth, supported by an outstanding performance in Process Automation and continued demand for our energy-saving technology in Climate Control.
“I would like to thank all our people for delivering this result. It demonstrates the strength and quality of our business and success of the growth strategy we launched in 2019. IMI is now a higher quality, more resilient and more innovative business, with a well-balanced geographic mix of revenues more closely aligned to attractive, long-term growth markets in fluid and motion control. Over the past five years we have built a track record of sustainable, profitable growth, delivering 11% compound annual adjusted EPS growth.
“Given the strength of our cash flow, disciplined approach to capital allocation, strong balance sheet and confidence in our future performance, we today announce a further £200m share buyback and a 10% increase to the final dividend. Over the next three years, we expect to generate in excess of £1 billion in free cash flow.
“Based on current market conditions, we anticipate another year of strong financial and strategic progress in 2025. We expect full year adjusted basic EPS to be between 129p and 136p, representing mid-single digit organic revenue growth.”
