Johnson Matthey soars 30% after industrials investor reveals 5.2% stake

Shares in Johnson Matthey soared over 30 on Friday after the investment arm of New Yorkbased industrial firm Standard Industries took a 5.23 stake in the British chemicals maker.p

pMattheys stock jumped as much as 35 to 2,536 pence on Friday, its highest since November. A London trader, on condition of anonymity, said the stake deal could be a prelude to “some kind of move”, referring to possible transactions.pdivdivdiv classBodysc17zpet90 cdBBJodiv

pStandard Industries bought U.S.based global specialty chemical company W. R. Grace & Co a year ago in a 4.63 billion deal.p

pAs of Thursday, Matthey had a market value of 3.47 billion pounds 4.36 billion.p

pStandards stake disclosure comes a few months after Johnson Matthey announced plans to sell or exit its battery materials business in November. Its stock had slumped 32 since that announcement. p

p“We would consider this to be something like an ideal owner for Johnson Matthey, operational overlap on the process catalyst business and an ability to take a longterm view on the cash generation from the Clean Air business,” analysts at Jefferies wrote in a note.p

pStandard Latitude Master Fund, controlled by Standard Investments and the cochiefs of Standard Industries, would now be Mattheys fifthlargest shareholder, according to Refinitiv data.p

p1 0.7966 poundsp