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Corporate Divestiture Activity   

Do These Portfolio Optimization Strategies Drive Growth? 

Corporates have been looking to accelerate growth and add to existing platforms on the buy side as they focus on, and redefine, their core business. Major global diversified industrials such as GE, Honeywell, Danaher, and Smiths, among others, are spinning off, or divesting assets as they redefine their portfolios for accelerated growth.

2017 was an excellent environment to sell - and a number of corporates did just that. Taking a page from the private equity playbook, many corporates sold at the top of the market. The total number of global divestiture transactions in 2017 was 7,897, with the US portion of that representing 2,499. Globally, this amounted to an increase of 1.7% over the prior year.

Morgan Advanced Materials divested its UK Electro Ceramics business to CeramTec UK Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CeramTec GmbH.

RaySpec was acquired by Polatechno in order to gain access to new technologies that will build future business. 

Smiths Group plc  divested its scientific instrumentation accessories business to Foresight Group. 

Private equity firms are clearly hungry for these overlooked (and often under-invested) assets as they frequently provide an excellent value creation opportunity when you have the right people, strategy, and capital in place to focus these opportunities in the right direction.

Livingstone actively advising large corporates on their divestiture transactions and we expect to continue to work with more corporate sellers as they continue to realize that now is an optimal time to maximize value and redeploy their capital to areas of greater focus and growth within their firms. Our experience in this area, having been awarded several mandates, give us the relevant, first-hand experience needed to produce positive outcomes for our clients.

10 to Know

Industry trends owners should know

Our Team


Livingstone is strategically positioned in Beijing, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Madrid, Dusseldorf and Stockholm, and is a long-standing leader in cross-border and domestic M&A for the industrials sector, with over 275 successfully completed transactions. 

Our Global Industrials Group provides strategic advice and seamless transaction execution to private business owners, financial sponsors, and major corporations across Europe, North America and Asia. 

Graham Carberry

Partner, UK

Karl Freimuth

Partner, US

Christopher 

Fägerskiöld 

Partner, Sweden

Thomas Lesch 

Partner, US

Steven Lewis

Partner, Spain


Ralf Hagelgans

Partner, Germany

Andrew Isgrig 

Partner, US

© Copyright 2018
In this issue

2018 M&A Industrials Outlook 

Is this "the new normal?"

Global Debt Market Trends  

EVs are near all-time highs

A Shift Away from Diversification

Buyers seek to strengthen market position


Corporate Divestiture Trends

Redefining portfolios for growth

Industrial Technology 

Emerging technologies take shape

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