ABB buys UK actuator firm Rotork for $5.5bn, funded by Robotics sale
17 July 2026 
ABB is buying the UK flow control, instrumentation and actuator specialist Rotork for around $5.5bn in cash, partly funded by the $4.8bn cash sale of ABB Robotics to SoftBank, which is due to close in the second half of this year. ABB expects the acquisition to strengthen its focus on automation and electrification, and to expand its automation offering for large and complex infrastructure projects and industries.
Rotork is expected to operate as a separate division within ABB’s automation business.
ABB describes Bath-based Rotork’s business as being “highly complementary” to its existing automation portfolio, and says it will strengthen its position at the field-device layer. The deal will enhance its “sense-control-act” automation loop with intelligent field devices and software that monitor and manage industrial processes continuously for safer, more productive and sustainable operations. ABB expects its automation business to benefit from increased exposure to higher-margin products, services and lifecycle revenues.
Rotork, in turn, will benefit from ABB’s global scale, market reach, service presence, and digital and technology capabilities. This will help to accelerate its growth with opportunities to expand its service model. The combination will also allow Rotork to accelerate the development of intelligent device diagnostics and asset management systems using ABB’s digital platforms.
Rotork has three end-market-focused divisions: Oil & Gas, Water & Power, and Chemical, Process & Industrial (CPI). It has more than 3,500 employees, and serves 140 countries. In 2025, the company’s revenues were worth around $1bn, and its operating profit margin was 24.6%. In the period in 2022–2025, Rotork recorded an 8% average annual growth in revenue. ABB expects Rotork to add around 3% to its group-level revenues, and around 12% to its automation revenues.
“ABB has followed Rotork over many years, and we admire the execution excellence, engineering quality, and customer trust that Rotork’s teams deliver each day,” says CEO, Morten Wierod. “We are convinced of the compelling strategic fit of the transaction that will expand our automation offering at the field device layer, generating significant value for customers, employees and shareholders of both companies.
“As part of ABB, Rotork is expected to accelerate its growth and value creation while preserving its entrepreneurial spirit and customer proximity that makes this business so successful,” he adds. “With our strong balance sheet, ABB has room for additional M&A and execution of its announced share buyback programme.”
Rotork’s chair, Dorothy Thompson, says its board believes that the ABB offer “reflects the high quality of Rotork and recognises the significant progress delivered through the successful implementation of our Growth+ strategy, whilst providing an attractive opportunity for Rotork shareholders to accelerate the value creation of the company’s strong future prospects, in cash at closing. The combination brings together two companies whose purposes are closely aligned, with a shared focus on automation and electrification to enable more sustainable and efficient operations.
“The board also believes that ABB’s decentralised operating model and commitment to run Rotork as a separate division will benefit the group’s business, employees and wider stakeholders,” she adds. “As a result, the board has unanimously agreed to recommend the offer to Rotork shareholders.”
ABB says its recognises Rotork’s role as a UK engineering employer and contributor to the UK’s industrial base. Its plans to work closely with Rotork’s management team following the completion of the transaction. There are no current plans to change Rotork’s presence significantly in the UK, which is expected to remain an important manufacturing and technology base for Rotork. ABB says it regards the UK is “an important market” where it already has more than 1,700 employees.
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to approval by Rotork’s shareholders and regulatory approvals.
Rotork Engineering started trading in 1957 with the launch of its first actuator, the 100A, followed in 1959 by the Mk2 version that opened valves electrically, that would previously been operated by hand. In 1961, it built its Brassmill Lane Manufacturing site in Bath, which is still its headquarters. In 1968, it transitioned from being a private company to a PLC when it launched on the London Stock Exchange. Since then it has continued to expand globally, and to enter new business areas such as gearboxes and fluid power actuators, driven by a string of acquisitions around the world.
Rotork: LinkedIn
