Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I hope you enjoyed the video celebrating our 175-year anniversary, which highlights many significant events over our history. My career at Smiths represents more than a fifth of this time, and I have been fortunate enough to work on many projects where we have made important contributions to engineering and to our customers. 2026 is yet another momentous period in our history as we reshape the portfolio, and I am delighted at the execution of this strategy so far. Turning to the agenda for today, I'll start with the key highlights before handing over to Julian to walk through the numbers in more detail. I'll then come back to you to provide an update on our strategy, and as always, we'll have plenty of time for questions at the end.
The first half of fiscal year 2026 has been a strategically important period for Smiths as we executed major portfolio actions, achieving attractive valuations for both Smiths Interconnect and Smiths Detection. It marks a period of progress in which we have delivered a solid financial performance and positioned the company for stronger, more focused growth and improved margin and return profile. These outcomes reflect consistent execution and sustained progress. We have continued to take a disciplined approach to capital allocation, investing organically and in growth accretive acquisitions. Divestments have enabled enhanced capital returns to shareholders with a further announcement today of a new GBP 1.5 billion program. We have updated our fiscal year 2026 outlook for Smiths following our change in reporting for discontinued operations.
We expect organic revenue growth of 3%-4%, reflecting expectations of a stronger second half with its growth in line with our medium-term target range. We expect an operating profit margin of around 20%, demonstrating clear progress towards our medium-term financial targets. With that, I'll now hand over to Julian to talk through the numbers in more detail.
Thank you, Roland, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to be here today to present our fiscal year 2026 half-year financial results. As usual, I'll take you through our financial performance, provide more color around the latest developments in our businesses before covering capital allocation. Before I start, I'd like to flag that the results include more complicated accounting disclosures than is usual as we transition through the separations of Smiths Interconnect and Smiths Detection. Group refers to John Crane, Flex-Tek and Smiths Detection, which was the basis of our guidance at the beginning of our fiscal year. Smiths refers to John Crane and Flex-Tek, our continuing businesses, and total group includes all four businesses across both continuing and discontinued operations. Starting with group headline performance, organic revenue growth was +4%, which was in line with our expectations.
Operating profit grew 7.2% on an organic basis and 5.6% on a reported basis, resulting in a margin expansion of 50 basis points. Revenue for Smiths grew zero point four percent organically, consistent with our expectations for a higher second half weighting. Reported revenue declined 1%, including a +1.4% contribution from acquisitions in Flex-Tek, offset by adverse foreign exchange of 2.8%. Smiths margin expanded by 20 basis points to 19.8%. Continued progress towards our medium-term target of 21%-23%. Total group EPS was up 8.4% organically and 11.7% on a reported basis, supported by the share buyback program. Return on capital employed increased 130 basis points to 18.4%. Operating cash conversion was 78%.
Turning to Group revenue, the 4% growth was supported by growing momentum in John Crane, with a strong second quarter driven by growth in energy, strong growth in Flex-Tek Aerospace, offset by softness in Flex-Tek Construction, and strong delivery in Smiths Detection, where we continued to build and convert its strong multi-year order book. This growth was supplemented by a positive contribution from Flex-Tek's acquisitions. Across the portfolio, there was a good contribution from new products and innovation as well as strong commercial execution. Operating profit margin expanded 50 basis points for Group.
This growth reflected operating leverage and a positive mix impact from growth in John Crane and Smiths Detection, a negative impact from U.S. tariffs, with the largest impact coming through in detection and 70 basis points of efficiencies coming through from the Acceleration Plan, largely at John Crane, a reduction in central costs alongside savings from the Smiths Excellence System. Strong organic EPS growth of 8.4% was achieved by the organic operating profit increase, the share buyback partially offset by higher tax and interest. Reported EPS grew 11.7% to GBP 0.62 per share, reflecting accretion from Flex-Tek acquisitions, adverse foreign exchange and the accounting effects related to the sale of Smiths Detection and Smiths Interconnect, which under IFRS 5 are no longer subject to amortization or depreciation. Total cash generation was GBP 220 million, representing a 78% operating cash conversion.
This reflected lower CapEx at GBP 29 million following the completion of the majority of automation and capacity investment last year. This was offset by working capital outflows in John Crane and Smiths Detection to support second half order book delivery. It is worth noting that last year's working capital benefited from better than usual payables at the end of the period in the context of the cyber incident. Turning now to the continuing business. We'll focus today on John Crane and Flex-Tek, but you can find performance reviews for Smiths Detection and Smiths Interconnect in today's RNS. John Crane delivered 2% organic growth with momentum building across the half. Following the marginal decline in quarter one, John Crane delivered mid-single digit growth in the second quarter, reflecting healthy demand and improvements in operational execution following the automation and machining capacity investments.
Growth was led by energy, which grew 3.9% with a strong performance in the second quarter. Dry Gas Seal demand remained healthy, while system sales were impacted by some project phasing in Europe and Asia. Performance in industrial was lower as a result of overcapacity in Chinese chemicals, partly offset by strength in mining and pulp and paper in the Americas. Aftermarket, which makes around 70% of revenue, was strong with increased focus on reliability-based contracts. Sales of original equipment performed solidly, particularly in the U.S. and Latin America. John Crane margin expanded 50 basis points to 23.2%, reflecting pricing, mix benefits from higher aftermarket growth, Smiths Excellence and Acceleration Plan benefits offsetting a limited impact from U.S. tariffs. We continue to invest in innovation that strengthens our leadership in critical flow control.
In the first half, we saw positive uptake of the new Type 93AX separation seal that we launched last year, and we also launched a new mechanical seal designed for ethane and ethylene pipelines. This has already delivered performance improvements for a leading ethane pipeline operator in the U.S. Gulf Coast. Looking ahead, we expect John Crane's growth momentum to continue with the second half expected to grow at a similar rate to the second quarter. Our growth outlook is supported by a strong and expanding order book in both OE and aftermarket. With a positive Book-to-Bill, we have good visibility through the remainder of fiscal year 2026. Turning to Flex-Tek. To reflect how we run the business, we show the performance of construction, thermal solutions, and aerospace. The results exclude certain industrial businesses which have been classified as discontinued operations.
This reflects the strategic decision to high-grade the Flex-Tek portfolio to focus on higher growth and higher margin market subsegments. Organic revenue for the half declined 2%, largely reflecting market-driven weakness in the U.S. construction market, offset by strong growth in aerospace. Acquisitions delivered GBP 12 million or 3.4% to growth, which was offset by negative foreign exchange. In construction, performance reflected a challenging period for U.S. residential construction, where housing starts and building permits remain negative over the six-month period. This continuing market downturn has had a knock-on effect on customer inventories, which has impacted order levels, particularly in residential heat kits. Second half performance is dependent on the pace of recovery in U.S. housing, which remains uncertain and where builders' confidence remains well below 50. We have taken a cautious view on this.
The thermal solutions business declined 7.8% in the period, largely related to customer destocking of heat kits that I just mentioned. This was partly offset by the completion of a large ultra-high heating contract. The pipeline of projects in this space remains healthy. Aerospace grew strongly at 10.1%, supported by healthy demand and a full and growing order book across both commercial and defense aircraft build programs. Alongside renewed long-term agreements, these provide good visibility for the second half and beyond. Regarding acquisitions, the integration of Modular Metal Fabricators is largely complete and Duc-Pac Corporation is progressing to plan. In thermal solutions, the integration of Wattco is also largely complete, and the business is now focused on accelerating growth from expanded capacity in its new manufacturing facility. Operating margin was 20.4%, a 60 basis points decrease compared with last year.
This reflected negative drop through from lower volumes, the completion of the higher margin Ultra High Heat contract and higher material costs. This was partly offset by efficiency savings and the initial benefits from the Acceleration Plan. Our approach to capital allocation continues to support growth, returns, and balance sheet efficiency. We invested a total of GBP 101 million in RD&E and CapEx, investing for future growth and efficiency. We increased our interim dividend by 5.4% to GBP 0.15 per share, and we paid GBP 104 million in dividends in the first half, continuing our track record of consistent dividend growth. We completed the GBP 500 million buyback at the beginning of December, and we started executing the GBP 1 billion buyback related to the sale of Smiths Interconnect.
This is expected to be substantially complete by the end of calendar year 2026, with the first tranche of GBP 600 million to be completed by the end of this fiscal year. We recently announced the acquisition of DRC for GBP 164 million at an attractive valuation of 10x Adjusted EBITDA. The transaction is expected to complete in the third quarter of the fiscal year. Finally, today, we announced we expect to return GBP 1.5 billion of the Smiths Detection proceeds via the combination of a tender offer or special dividend, accompanied by a share buyback program. This will commence upon the completion of the current program and continue through calendar year 2027. We will update further on the precise mechanism and timing once the divestment completes.
Our balance sheet remains strong with a leverage of 1.2 x as at the end of January, giving us good flexibility to continue investing for growth. We have updated our fiscal year 2026 guidance for continuing operations of Smiths Group. We expect organic revenue growth of 3%-4%, with momentum building to deliver stronger growth in the second half, which is expected to fall within our medium-term target range. John Crane enters the second half with good momentum, which combined with a strong order book in both OE and aftermarket, supports an improving second half, and we expect growth of mid-single digits similar to the second quarter. A positive Book-to-Bill gives us good visibility through fiscal year 2026, with the recent investments in advanced manufacturing and testing starting to bear fruit.
In Flex-Tek, we expect a stronger second half, driven by continued strength in aerospace, supported by order book visibility and new contract positions. The pace of recovery in U.S. residential construction remains uncertain. However, Flex-Tek is well-positioned to benefit when the market returns. We expect operating profit margin of around 20%, progressing nicely towards our new medium-range target, driven by operating leverage, benefits from the Acceleration Plan, and ongoing efficiencies from Smiths Excellence. We expect cash conversion to be around the low-to-mid 90s%, reflecting continued investment for growth and strong underlying cash generation. Finally, one word on what's happening in Iran and surrounding countries. Our main priority is the safety of our people who work in the region. In half year 2026, the Middle East region contributed to around 7% of revenue for Smiths, primarily in John Crane.
We are mindful of the uncertainty these events bring, and we continue to monitor developments alongside this potential size and duration of any impacts on performance, which are not incorporated in our current guidance. In summary, our half year 2026 financial results demonstrate a solid delivery, expanding margins, and continued discipline on capital allocation. With that, I'll hand back to Roland.
Firstly, I'll provide an update on our strategic progress. Then I'll turn to the Smiths businesses and the opportunities for continued growth and margin expansion. I'll end with our people and culture. The defining feature of the first half was the value-accretive transformation of our portfolio. We agreed the sales of Interconnect and Detection ahead of schedule for a total value of GBP 3.3 billion at highly attractive multiples that were above market expectations. These transactions reflect our ongoing commitment to maximize value for shareholders and to sharpen our strategic focus. The regulatory processes are progressing well, with Interconnect close to completion, and we remain on track to complete Detection before the end of the calendar year. I would like to express my thanks to all my colleagues for delivering such a great outcome. The proceeds from these two transactions support substantial capital returns.
We've already begun returning the Interconnect proceeds through the GBP 1 billion share buyback program initiated in December, building on the GBP 500 million buyback completed last calendar year. For the Detection proceeds, as Julian mentioned, we expect to return a further GBP 1.5 billion . We look forward to sharing the details in due course. In the past four and a half years, we have returned more than GBP 2.3 billion to shareholders via dividends and buybacks. With the remainder of the current buyback and the new program announced today, there is still more than GBP 2 billion to be returned continuing through calendar year 2027. Our approach is consistent. Invest for growth, allocate capital smartly, and return surplus capital to shareholders efficiently. Following the separations, Smiths will be a focused industrial engineering company.
We specialize in high-performance technologies in flow control and thermal solutions. We hold leading positions in attractive market subsegments that are aligned with long-term structural mega trends. We are well-regarded for the quality of our products, our technologies and solutions, and we are admired for our skills in customization, customer service, and our ability to help solve customer problems. We have a portfolio of well-known leading brands with a reputation for innovative and reliable products. We have valued customer relationships, which together with our high-performing culture and a strong financial profile, mean that we are well-positioned to grow faster than the market in which we operate.
Let me drill a little bit deeper into the growth opportunities in each of our businesses. Around 60% of John Crane operates in the flow control segment of the global energy market, where growth is underpinned by demand for energy security, energy transition, and a continuing demand for efficiency and reliability. 40% of John Crane serves other industrial markets, such as mining, which also enjoy similar characteristics. Our growth strategy for John Crane is focused on our particular strengths in downstream and midstream energy, where we see considerable runway before the world reaches peak oil and gas. We also have a leading position in energy transition and are well-positioned to take advantage of the high level of growth in areas such as hydrogen, geothermal, and carbon capture and storage. In Flex-Tek, while the construction market is soft in the near term, its future prospects remain favorable.
We see increased demand for housing, which is expected to expand with population growth and the shortage of single and multi-family homes in the U.S. In thermal solutions, the industrial electrification trend is a key driver supporting emissions reductions, improved safety and efficiency, and spans industrial markets. Here too, demand is underpinned by customers' desire to have a single integrated customized solution. Energy demand is also a key underpin, especially for high performance and efficient heating and cooling. The addition of DRC broadens our position by expanding our heating business into cooling technologies. This adds high growth data center exposure with AI demand supporting the expansion in digital infrastructure. In aerospace, rising air travel driven by increased trade, GDP, and population growth supports a continued increase in commercial aircraft production. Heightened security concerns support an increase in defense spending, also increasing demand for new aircraft.
In our key end markets, these trends underpin a market CAGR forecast of 4%-5% over the next decade. Our customer and market-led approach ensures we fully leverage our leading market positions and the underlying growth trends to drive performance and to take advantage of these multi-year tailwinds. Our aim is to continue to deliver above market growth over the medium term, underpinned by resilient and recurring revenue base. This provides a strong foundation for sustainable performance. We've set out the initiatives we are focusing on to drive this enhanced growth, leveraging our existing portfolio and long-term customer relationships, driving innovation through new product development and commercialization, driving commercial and operational excellence, and accessing higher growth and higher margin market adjacencies, both organically and through targeted acquisitions. We lay out here our strategic approach within each of our businesses and highlight a few examples.
In John Crane, we continue to leverage our core energy offering and recent product launches to access new OE investment, especially in gas and energy transition. We see opportunities to drive further aftermarket growth by leveraging our global service network, transitioning a higher proportion into reliability management contracts and applying digital solutions. We are targeting faster-growing geographies such as Latin America. In Flex-Tek, despite the current low growth environment, we continue to drive the business forward to capture market opportunities, leveraging our portfolio through our strong distributor relationships, for example, through widening the product lines we offer. We see opportunity to expand our position into more white space in parts of the U.S. and Canada and developing new products like our Blue Series Sealed Duct system. In thermal solutions, the addition of DRC brings cooling technologies, widening our addressable market.
Here, customers seek tailored solutions and our recent acquisition positions as well. We see greater opportunities for growth as we evolve from a focus on heat and components to systems and integrated platforms to target higher growth areas like data centers. Finally, in aerospace, leveraging our portfolio with aircraft and engine manufacturers to add share on new programs, accessing higher growth subsegments, for example, defense or repair and service, renegotiating long-term agreements with key aircraft and engine manufacturers, enabling better price capture to augment growth. In fact, across all the businesses, pricing is another key area of focus to ensure we capture the price that reflects the value we deliver for our customers and also underpins future growth. This multifaceted approach ensures that we remain well-positioned to outperform in our markets over the medium term, supporting our 5%-7% organic revenue growth target.
On this slide, we've set out some examples of initiatives we have recently executed. John Crane signed a multi-year reliability management agreement with a major energy company, improving equipment reliability and standardizing performance across their global operations. Flex-Tek extended a 30-year partnership with a space customer and is renegotiating its long-term agreements with major aircraft engine manufacturers. These agreements grow and sustain recurring revenues and customer intimacy across the cycles. In innovation, John Crane recently launched its Coaxial Separation Seal, which sets a new benchmark in its category and has had positive take-up. Flex-Tek's Blue Series offers enhanced emission control and ease of installation and has been well received by customers. Operationally, investments in automation and machinery upgrades, most notably at John Crane, improves delivery and lead times. This helps us capture orders, earn price and expand market share, supporting growth. Finally, market adjacencies.
Here we have initiated our thermal solution strategy to access high growth market sub-segments. Let me turn to our recently announced acquisition, which supports this approach. We are scaling Flex-Tek into high growth cooling applications with the agreement to acquire DRC Heat Transfer. DRC designs custom heat transfer and cooling solutions for data centers, general industrial, transit and energy. It serves blue chip customers and brings deep engineering expertise and a strong service culture. It builds on last year's acquisition of Wattco, which expanded our heat business across the temperature spectrum. Strategically, DRC adds heat removal and cooling to Flex-Tek's industrial heat portfolio. It increases our addressable market and creates clear cross-selling opportunities for our heating technologies. It is aligned with the data center expansion and power backup applications, both attractive structural trends with a strong growth outlook.
This is disciplined accretive growth and aligned with our strategy of accessing high growth market adjacencies. Turning now to margins. Supporting the delivery of our medium-term target of 21%-23% is our Acceleration Plan, where we have updated the benefits and costs for Smiths Group. We now expect GBP 30 million-GBP 35 million of annualized benefits in fiscal year 2027 and beyond for GBP 40 million-GBP 45 million of cost. Around half the benefits are expected to be achieved this fiscal year. We highlight here some of the initiatives underway in both John Crane and Flex-Tek, and we are also working on programs to maintain our central costs at 1.5%-1.7% of revenue. These are all examples of our strategy in action that will propel us towards our medium-term targets.
We are reshaping Smiths into a focused, faster growing, higher margin company with clear growth pillars, high margin on returns, disciplined capital allocation and substantial value creation potential. Fiscal year 2026 represents a transition year as we reposition the portfolio, and we remain confident in our ability to reach the enhanced through cycle medium-term targets. We continue to make progress towards these targets, supported by our disciplined balance approach to capital allocation. This is how we will deliver enhanced returns and support a premium rating for Smiths. Our performance rests on the same foundations that have driven us forward throughout our history. Firstly, product and service innovation that delivers reliability, efficiency and safety for our customers. We are bolstering our approach here to be even more agile and purposeful, deploying innovation roadmaps by product, technology, processes and materials to ensure we capture market opportunities.
For example, capturing electrification momentum and rising high temperature applications for Flex-Tek and leveraging John Crane's extreme condition seals and energy transition applications. Second, a high-performing culture with clear accountability and ownership. As part of this, a strong safety culture is critical and keeping our people safe is our number one priority. I wasn't satisfied in our safety record performance in the half. A number of targeted activities, including safety stand downs, are being implemented to drive improvements for the second half to ensure that we focus on delivering a zero harm culture. Third, operational excellence. With our Smiths Excellence framework driving continuous improvement to ensure lean and effective operational execution. 1,500 colleagues have taken our Smiths Excellence Yellow Belt training, broadening the reach wider and deeper into the business, and all of it underpinned by our Smiths values, which we have recently refreshed.
These foundations are what bind us together to remain focused on delivering value for all our stakeholders. In summary, we have delivered excellent strategic progress, unlocking notable value in the portfolio. We delivered another solid half in terms of financial performance with a momentum into the second half, also supported by our strong order book. We expect full year organic revenue performance of 3%-4% with second half growth ahead of that in the first and within our medium-term target range. We expect an operating profit margin of around 20%. We are deploying capital in a disciplined manner in growth and value accretive acquisitions and see further opportunities on this front while enabling sizable capital returns. We are well-positioned in structurally growing end markets with attractive demand trends, and are leveraging our strengths and capabilities to outperform this market growth.
We are confident that Smiths is well positioned to continue unlocking significant value and enhance returns to shareholders. Thank you for listening. Julian and I are now happy to take your questions.
Press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Once again, please press star one one to ask a question and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. We are now going to proceed with our first question. The question comes from the line of Lushanthan Mahendrarajah from JP Morgan. Please ask your question.
Morning, guys, and thanks for taking my questions. I've got two, please, both on John Crane. The first is just on the guidance, the second half and the mid-single digit growth you talked about. Sort of good momentum in OE and aftermarket, but just be interesting to hear what you're seeing in energy and industrial as well amongst that. And also, you know, is the order book that you have sort of fully underpinned the second half? Is there more that that needs to come in? Just give us some sort of comfort around that sort of mid-single digit guide for the second half. The second question, which is I guess kind of linked, is just on the Middle East.
I know your guidance doesn't include what's happening there, but I guess it's been a couple of weeks since that sort of kicked off. I guess sort of any early thoughts on what are you seeing there currently? What are you seeing more broadly, globally elsewhere? I guess how should we think about both the short term and the mid term potential implications as well? I guess also on the aftermarket there and I guess with the oil price where it is, I know you've historically talked about a range that's sort of below where the oil price is today, where activity is stronger. Just if you think you can see any impact there as well, that'd be interesting. Thank you.
Thank you very much for the questions. I think picking up on that first part of your question about H2 and the momentum that we're seeing coming into H2 in John Crane. We saw in Q2 the strength of Q2. We're definitely seeing that momentum carrying into the second half. We see that visibility through our order book, so that's our order book both for OE but also for aftermarket. One needs to sort of recall that actually we see a lot more than just our order book because we're being asked to quote on aspects, we're being asked to be involved in the designs as well. We've got a robust order book supporting that.
Our operational performance, as if you've seen, has now really picked up after the challenges we had had earlier. That combination of our ability to deliver, you know, within the lead times that we wanted to get to and the fact that we've got that order book both in OE and aftermarket, and we still see, you know, a lot of activity in the market, gives us that visibility. Heavily underpinned. There is always a book and burn, as I would say. Orders that do come in associated with aftermarket, associated with spares, so that continues at a healthy rate as well.
You can see why that we are entering this period within the context that is in the Middle East crisis in a very robust position for John Crane. Finally, dealt with our operational issues and moving forward robustly on that. We're very pleased with that and you've already seen and we've evidenced that in Q2. We believe that in the world that doesn't have the Middle East in it, that's a very robust aspect. I think on the Middle East, obviously the thoughts first go to our people. We have many hundreds of people in the Middle East, both within John Crane and within Smiths Detection.
Though those are people who are based in our service centers, they're people who are based, you know, service engineers who are based at airports in the case of Smiths Detection and at customer sites in the case of John Crane. We are doing everything that we can in the situation going forward. From the point of view of Middle East for Smiths as a whole, you know, in H1, to give you a sense of where we are represented 7% of our revenues. For John Crane itself, it represented 12% of revenues. There's no doubt that on a sort of if one was quite myopic about energy and the impact on John Crane, there is noise.
We've got customers who need things, you know, very quickly. We've got customers who are focused on maintaining their operations. We've got customers who are shutting down their operations in a managed manner. There will be noise coming into the system within the very short term. In the long term, I think we've sort of pretty much moved past the energy trilemma, and it really is all about how you deliver that energy security. I think if you think of that as a backdrop for John Crane, which is all about, you know, reliability, safety, security for our customers' supply, over time, we're going to have to be there for the demands that are coming from our customers.
Whether those are customers in the Middle East trying to repair, rebuild, and maintain or whether that's our customers globally who will have to deal with, you know, short-term, medium-term shortages. That ultimately means that we will have to work harder and we'll have to deliver more to our customers. In the short term, I think we're all grappling with, you know, what the different messages coming out from the Middle East. I think if you step back though, I think that's the sort of more important part of perspective, which is what does this have as an effect on the globe from the point of view of the industrialization and GDP.
I mean, I think we're all sitting there wondering what does that mean in terms of supply chains, in terms of energy costs, in terms of raw materials that are reliant on energy. I think that's a broader question, which I am not really the best person to ask on that. But I think we are very ready for those challenges. If you recall the Acceleration Plan, which we're a substantial way through, and we're already seeing half the benefits in this fiscal year, and we'll see the full benefits in next fiscal year. I think you've seen us build a resilient and but agile cost base within that as well.
We feel very well set up not only to support our direct customers, but also to flex with their needs, whether that's, you know, moves to the U.S., whether that's more deliveries into the Middle East or Asia. Absolutely our short-term focus here is supporting the customers and making sure that, you know, where their infrastructure has been damaged, impacted, that we make sure that we're as responsive as possible. There will be some sort of movements within that robust order book. We recognize that, and we will be flexible to that. I would sort of then step back and say, think about John Crane as the shape of the business. That aftermarket is over 70% of the business.
I think what you're seeing there is the fact that's the most resilient sort of part of the market. It's difficult not to look after your equipment. We even when it's not been fully utilized or even when you're going through a shutdown or bringing those back up. That's a very robust piece of our business model. Stepping through, you asked about in industrial and we should look at that from the aspect of 40% of John Crane is industrial. Not directly related to that oil and gas energy market.
We saw weakness, you know, in oversupply in China for the chemicals. We're seeing that actually we're seeing recovery there for the second half. Notwithstanding that, you know, we obviously need to get a better understanding from the point of view of feedstocks and the like. We believe that the industrial will be a positive for us within our present guidance. Hopefully that answers your question.
That was great. Thank you, guys.
We are now going to proceed with our next question. The question comes from our Jonathan Hurn from Barclays. Please ask your question.
Hey, guys. Good morning. Just two questions from me. Firstly, can I just come back to John Crane in the Middle East? Obviously you're talking to sort of 5% growth in John Crane in the second half. Can you just tell us how much of the order book that's gonna be delivered in H2 actually comes from the Middle East? That was the first question. The second question was just coming back to your revenue bridge and obviously the pricing within that. I think you talked about John Crane pricing being positive, but obviously you're seeing headwinds in Flex-Tek pricing. Can you just talk us through what you're seeing in Flex-Tek, and are we gonna continue to see a headwind to pricing going forward, please? Thank you.
Yes. As I think we all know, I'm not keen on talking specifics on order books apart from giving you guidance about whether they're strong or not because they can be misleading. I will give you the guidance of what I mentioned earlier, which is, you know, 12% of the first half was in the Middle East for John Crane. That gives you the kind of indication of what happens for us, which is essentially 7% of Smiths. That's the sort of guidance I'll give you on the order book. We've seen a mixture of order intake over the half.
We saw very strong growth, for example, in Latin America. We saw growth in the U.S. We already had a little bit of a quiet time in the Middle East. I think we feel that order book has enough substance to take us through to our guidance on that. Obviously we're not guiding for that particular Middle East part of that. On revenue, yes, we still are very active. I mean, we really do have those muscles very well exercised on pricing, you know, ensuring we are getting paid for appropriate levels of prices.
As I mentioned, for our product and the value that we bring to the customer, we do see positive pricing going through the John Crane business. We believe that we'll continue to see that pricing go through the business. Pleased there. If you go through the aspects of Flex-Tek, yes, their pricing is the thinnest in Flex-Tek construction, and we'll see that continue to be very thin because of the market conditions while the market conditions continue as they were.
We haven't put any sort of guidance or any upturn in construction in our second half, although you saw us overperform against the market in FY, financial year 2025, and you saw us sort of level with the market in the first half of FY, fiscal year 2026. You could see that as headwinds in there. We also had a mix effect in there, which you'd have seen the Midrex contract as well. The other aspects of Flex-Tek, thermal and the aerospace, we're seeing positive pricing in those aspects.
Specifically, we're seeing not only significant growth in the aerospace business, but we're also seeing significant pricing power within that growth as well.
Great. Thank you very much.
We are now going to proceed with our next question. The question's come from the line of Martin Wilkie from Citi. Please ask your question.
Yeah. Thank you. Good morning. It's Martin from Citi. Just to come back to Flex-Tek, and obviously you've made an acquisition this morning with DRC and also a small exit. But you've also given some better disclosure or more disclosure, I should say, in terms of that split of revenue, now splitting out thermal solutions separately. Is there a signal here in terms of more acquisitions, in terms of growing that business? When obviously in the past, people have thought about Flex-Tek as being very driven by construction and aerospace. There is obviously, you know, quite a structural sort of improvement in some of the other thermal markets like data centers and so forth. Just understand this combination of both the acquisition plus this increased disclosure inside Flex-Tek.
Is there a signal there that we should expect more capital to go into that area just in terms of looking at some of these faster growth areas or Flex-Tek? Thank you.
If you step back and re-review what we said in our strategy, our strategy is all about moving into this very focused industrial business and pointing ourselves to those higher margin, higher growth parts of the portfolio. We also stated that we would go through that high grading, and you saw that action and we've been very transparent now. You can see through into the future, you know, Smiths going forward. That's what we've said. You know, what we believe that the growth trends, the mega trends are. We are believers in the electrification.
We see the benefits of electrification not only from the efficiency, but also from the effectiveness that electrification gives people in their processes. We believe that electrification is continuing to drive forward. That's definitely an area where I'm very excited from the point of view of how do we differentiate ourselves. We will continue to develop and pick up new technologies within that area. We're very positive about all our markets. We are specifically positive about the area that's thermal, so this heating, cooling aspect of the business. DRC comes. We saw the multiple.
We thought we paid a good multiple for a business which will be accretive to us, over the long term, both in growth and in margin. We're excited that we've got exposure to data centers, which I think everybody is, but we're really more excited that we're starting to offer. You know, we started with heating elements, and then we did subsystems, and now we do systems for people really to support their processes. We see that we bought Wattco, we had SureHeat, we had Farnam, all building off that really solid Tutco foundation, and now we've added DRC. We're very positive in this area of the market.
It does deserve focus, which is why we've brought it out. We're also very positive that over the long term, construction will recover. We're experiencing exceptional performance, both market driven, but also because of our customer focus and intimacy in Flex-Tek, aerospace as well. We keep making good capital allocation decisions, whether those are capital allocation decisions on internal R&D or whether those are capital allocation all the way through to acquisition or, as you've seen, to returning capital to our shareholders.
Thanks. In terms of potential further acquisitions, I mean, I guess simplistically if you got GBP 1.85 billion of net proceeds from detection, the GBP 1.5 billion buyback, you've obviously done the deal today. I mean, it seems like you still have some firepower for some similar size deals. Is that the right way to think about it? Or, you know, how should we think about your pipeline for M&A over the next year or so?
I think I'll let Julian, as we haven't heard from Julian yet, to answer that.
Yes, I mean, thank you, Roland. I mean, the model of using small bolt-ons to enhance our strategic focus to drive accretive growth and profitability has been successful over the last few years, and particularly in Flex-Tek. We do anticipate that model continuing, as evidenced by DRC. You know, and yes, within our balance sheet, we've got the flexibility to do that, whilst delivering an appropriate level of leverage and balance sheet efficiency. That's the model, and we hope to continue with it.
Great. Thank you very much.
We are now going to proceed with our next question. The question's come from the line of Christian Hinderaker from Goldman Sachs. Please ask your question.
Morning, Roland. Morning, Julian. Thank you for the time. I wanna start with Flex-Tek, if I may, and the results obviously taking us up to the end of January. I appreciate we're now sort of at starting the spring season in U.S. construction or at least normally would be. I wonder if you could perhaps share any thoughts on the run rates you've seen.
As we head into February, March, have we seen a pickup in terms of the spring activity levels, or perhaps has there been any issues in terms of the challenging weather over in North America?
Our guidance that we've put out there about the growth rate is well aligned with what we're seeing in the order intake from Flex-Tek. Yes, we have had a little bit of weather, but I think that's behind us. As you know, there is seasonality, less seasonality than there was because of the way that the house building has sort of moved down into the more sort of temperate areas of the U.S., and we specifically sort of driven our both our organic and our inorganic approach to take advantage of that.
We believe that the business is performing as we anticipate to be able to deliver our guidance on that.
Thank you, Roland. Maybe to come back to the Middle East exposure in John Crane. I appreciate it's obviously a complex and concerning scenario, in particular for the people on the ground. My question is less around the guidance and maybe more how we should think about the mechanics or operational effects. I'm sure the John Crane business over the years has supported many clients with managing force majeure in the past. You know, what does that look like operationally, you know, if we have a downstream facility that's shutting operations, do you need to have people move in to support that? What impact does that have on seal wear typically? You know, how do we think about the mechanics in such events?
Yeah, absolutely. We should think about, you know, our people, but also their, excuse me, their families there as well. That is absolutely, as you say, Christian, top of our minds. It is complex, but one can simplify this to a great extent. I mean, we've all experienced this personally. I'm sure you know when you shut things down and when you turn things back on, that is the point. Things don't generally break as they run. Things break when they are switched on and when they are switched off, notwithstanding wear and tear.
This is a point where it's very important for us to be there with our customers to make sure we're not only talking about efficiency, we're talking about safety, safe shutdowns and, you know, trying to protect the equipment as much as possible. If one imagines that this system, a good analogy for this is you know the fuse in many of these plants is essentially what we make. We make the seal. If they want to sacrifice something within the plant, it is going to be the seal. They don't want to sacrifice the compressor or the pump because of the relative cost. We are there as almost a safety valve from that point of view.
So, you know, any exposure of this to damage from heat, damage from the fact that it hasn't been run, you know, correctly, that the support system hasn't been fully operational. Our systems business will cause the seal to have to be refreshed or replaced. That's the business. We are in a much better position than we were operationally on our machining, on our lead times, on our agility. We will be working with those customers who will, you know, want more spare parts just in case because they feel they might be cut off for a while. They, you know, might have to shut something down and bring it back up.
That's, you know, for John Crane, a very important part of our model, this customer intimacy, the knowledge that we are always there for them, and the fact that we will produce the spare parts for them and keep them running. Much as one would never like to say this is, you know, a positive situation. Ultimately, from a commercial point of view, this is relatively positive for us.
I'll just add that, in those facilities in other parts of the world that are having to meet the gap in demand, you also see them working to much higher capacity, and that is also supportive of our aftermarket business as we support our customers through them doing that process.
Very helpful. Thanks, guys.
We are now going to proceed with our next question. The question comes from the line of Andrew Douglas from Jefferies. Please ask your question.
Good morning, guys. Thank you for your time. Most of my questions have been answered, but I've just got two quick ones. Can you explain to us how you got to the GBP 1.5 billion in terms of return of cash to shareholders? I appreciate we're gonna get more details hopefully with the finals. GBP 1.5 bi llion was a little bit below what I expected. I would just be keen to understand how you got to that number. And then just going back to Flex-Tek, I'm sorry to labor the point here. Looks like you did about -4% organic in the second quarter, and we're now assuming that goes back to kind of modest levels of growth into the second half of the year.
I understand that there's lots of moving parts, you know, destocking coming to an end, but that might be offset by that large contract that finished. Can you just explain to us how we get to that +2%? Is that market, you know, +2% with a combination of commercial aerospace strong market in U.S. construction flat. I'm just trying to understand the dynamics and potential downside risk if the housing market doesn't come back in the second half. Thank you.
Would you like to take the first piece about the GBP 1.5 billion return?
Yes. The GBP 1.5 billion is, just to be clear, a reference to the detection proceeds, which we announced.
Yeah
As a valuation of GBP 2 billion, but of course, the net proceeds will be lower than that. The return is roughly 75% of the valuation. Clearly, we've used some of that capital for the DRC acquisition, and we're trying to model this in such a way that we deliver on all variables in terms of efficient balance sheet, appropriate level of leverage, continuing our model of bolt-on M&A that we talked about earlier, and indeed, the kind of balance of operating cash flows and dividend outflows that we'd see across the next 18-month period. It's largely a balancing act of all of those elements.
I'll pick up on the Flex-Tek question. We have a very strong order book and very high level of very visible order book in Flex-Tek Aerospace. We are in a very much an operational mode. We're seeing those long-term contracts come in. We're seeing pricing come in on those contracts as well. We have a very robust aerospace business, so we will see that to continue to accelerate on the deliveries there. From the point of view of construction, we haven't baked in a massive upturn in construction.
We believe that we're well placed to deliver from what we see at the run rates that we have. With the thermal solutions part, we did have that large single event of destocking that affected some of our heat kits, which won't repeat. That's why we end up in that region that you're indicating for the second half and therefore for the full year.
Okay, thank you.
As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Once again, it's star one one to register a question. We are now going to proceed with our next question. The questions come from the line of Alex O'Hanlon from Panmure Liberum. Please ask your question.
Good morning, gentlemen. Just one question from me on Flex-Tek. On the path of the Flex-Tek industrial portfolio that you've proposed to exit, where are you with completing those disposals? Just thinking ahead, are you happy with the Flex-Tek portfolio post those disposals? Obviously absent any other acquisitions, or is there more to do? Thank you.
Yeah, thanks, Alex. So the decision to divest part of the Flex-Tek industrial portfolio is very much consistent with our portfolio model. We wanna focus capital in higher growth, higher margin areas. We've got parts of the portfolio that are a little dilutive to us, so this decision effectively reflects us doing that and coming out of some of those non-core businesses. Of those divestments that we are taking the opportunity to classify as discontinued, one of those processes is reasonably well progressed. The other two will proceed as we come from here. But we know we have the confidence we'll be able to execute those as we go through the next six to 12 months.
To the second part of your question there, I mean, you know, look, we'll continue to evaluate the portfolio. You know, we see the opportunities that Roland pointed out before, particularly in the area of thermal solutions and that growth accretion that we see there. But equally, the roll-up strategy we've had in construction still has opportunity, and we'd see, you know, opportunity there to push that forward. Equally the same in aerospace. I think we've demonstrated we know how to run a really high quality aerospace business, so we continue to look for opportunity there. Look, net, we're happy with the Flex-Tek portfolio and we'll keep operating as we have been.
That's perfect. Thank you very much.
There are no further questions at this time, so I'll now hand back to Roland for closing remarks.
Thank you very much for all the questions. As you can see, we've delivered excellent strategic progress. We've unlocked notable value in the portfolio. We've delivered another solid half in terms of financial performance with momentum into the second half. We continue to deploy capital in a disciplined manner while enabling those sizable capital returns that you've heard, so that further GBP 1.5 billion return announced today. We are well-positioned in structurally growing and attractive markets. We are well-positioned to continue significant value creation for our shareholders. Thank you very much.