Cevian has a stake in Smith & Nephew. How it may help improve margins

Business: Smith & Nephew is a British portfolio medical technology company that operates worldwide. The company develops, manufactures, markets and sells medical devices and services. Its segments include Orthopedics, Sports Medicine and Ear, Nose and Throat, as well as Advanced Wound Management. Its Orthopedics segment includes a range of hip and knee implants to replace damaged or worn joints, robotics-assisted and digital enabling technologies, as well as trauma products used to stabilize severe fractures and correct hard tissue deformities. Its Sports Medicine and ENT businesses offer advanced products and instruments used to repair or remove soft tissue. Its Advanced Wound Management portfolio provides a comprehensive set of products to meet broad and complex clinical needs.

Stock Market Value: ~9.6 billion British pounds (11 pounds per share). The stock also trades in the U.S. as an American depositary receipt under the ticker “SNN.”

Percentage Ownership:  5.11%

Average Cost: 9.68 pounds

Activist Commentary: Cevian Capital, founded in 2002, is an international investment firm acquiring significant ownership positions in publicly listed European companies, where long-term value can be enhanced through active ownership. Cevian Capital is a long-term, hands-on owner of European-listed companies. It is often called a “constructive activist” and is the largest and most experienced dedicated activist investor in Europe. Cevian’s strategy is to help its companies become better and more competitive over the long term, and to earn its return through an increase in the real long-term value of the companies. The firm’s work at companies is typically supported by other owners and stakeholders.

Cevian acquired a 5.11% position in the company because the firm thinks that Smith & Nephew operates a fundamentally attractive business. The investor thinks there could be significant potential upside from improving the operating performance of the company’s businesses.

Smith & Nephew is a global leader in medical technology. The company develops and sells medical devices and services across three segments, maintaining a dominant global market position in each: Orthopedics, Sports Medicine and ENT, and Advanced Wound Management. Smith & Nephew is well known for its product quality and its brand perception is very strong. In addition, the company operates in fundamentally growing and consolidated markets with good competitive dynamics. In general, there is very predictable customer behavior as well as stable market shares for the industry leaders. In 2023, the company generated $5.55 billion in revenue, of which 40% came from Ortho, 31% from Sports Med and 29% from Wound. However, the profitability profile is quite different. After allocating overhead Ortho only has 11% operating…