The announcement of the elevation of IMI to the FTSE 100 index came as a complete surprise to me because I had forgotten all about it. Short for Imperial Metal Industries, it was a mid-cap “metal basher” in the 1990s, having been spun out of ICI in the 1930s.
Now, it seems, IMI is a specialist engineering business that “looks for ways of solving industry problems that have an impact on everyday life” in areas such as industrial automation, fluid control and energy efficiency. Its shares have risen by over 40% since mid-2022, but, on a multiple of less than 15 times this year’s earnings, still look good value.
