UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
Form 6-K
Report of Foreign Private Issuer
Pursuant to Rule 13a-16 or 15d-16 under the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934
December
08, 2025
Commission
File Number 001-14978
SMITH & NEPHEW plc
(Registrant’s
name)
Building 5, Croxley Park, Hatters Lane
Watford, England, WD18 8YE
(Address
of principal executive office)
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual
reports under cover of Form 20-F or Form 40-F.
Form
20-F ✔
Form 40-F
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THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION
Smith+Nephew Announces New Strategy and 2028 Financial
Targets
8 December 2025
Highlights:
● RISE,
Smith+Nephew's new strategy, builds
on our successful 12-Point Plan transformation and will deliver new
levels of financial and operational performance to drive
shareholder value
● 2028
financial targets announced,
including significant acceleration in revenue growth, profit, free
cash flow and Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)
● 2025
full year guidance updated,
with trading profit margin guidance now expected to be at least
19.5% and expected free cash flow upgraded to around $800
million
● Further
opportunities to rationalise product portfolio identified,
with an estimated $200 million non-cash inventory
provision in 2025, reducing complexity to drive growth, efficiency
and returns, and delivering a significant
and on-going reduction in the capital requirements of the
business
● 2026
full year provisional guidance issued, building on 2025 progress
Smith+Nephew (LSE: SN, NYSE: SNN), the global medical technology
company, will today present its new strategy, RISE, 2026
provisional guidance and 2028 financial targets at its Capital
Markets Day in London.
The RISE strategy is designed to drive stronger
returns for shareholders by elevating Smith+Nephew's financial and
operational performance to new levels by raising the standard of
care within our segments and reaching more patients with our
continued focus on innovation. This
new strategy builds on the success of the 12-Point Plan, announced
in 2022, through which we have transformed into a stronger, more
agile, and higher growth company.
RISE has four elements:
● To REACH more
patients by driving adoption of our differentiated portfolio and
taking share across indications, settings and markets
worldwide.
● To INNOVATE to
enhance the standard of care through
accelerating new
product launches and rapidly scaling existing innovation
platforms.
● To SCALE through
strategic investment, allocating capital to high return and high
growth opportunities aligned to our portfolio
priorities.
● To EXECUTE efficiently,
driving enterprise productivity and asset efficiency to expand our
margins and returns.
Further details on the new strategy will be provided at the Capital
Markets Day event in London later today.
Deepak Nath, Chief Executive Officer, commented:
"Smith+Nephew's new RISE strategy represents an ambitious but
achievable new chapter. Our actions under the 12-Point Plan have
created a fundamentally stronger business than three years ago and
a springboard for future growth. RISE is our roadmap to reach more
patients, deliver new categories of innovation, and further
accelerate our financial performance.
"Over the next three years, every business unit will contribute
uniquely to our value creation. Sports Medicine, Advanced Wound
Management and ENT will drive above-market growth through
innovation and disciplined execution, while Orthopaedics, operating
in a more mature segment, will return to delivering market-level
growth, supporting margin expansion, and enhanced
returns.
"Our growing free cash flow will enable ongoing investment in
innovation and open new strategic opportunities, and we will
empower our highly engaged workforce with world-class tools and
processes.
"We are confident that RISE will solidify Smith+Nephew's leadership
in healthcare innovation and deliver significant value for our
shareholders, customers, employees and communities."
2028 Financial Targets
Through RISE we expect to deliver a further step-change in
financial performance between 2025 and 2028. Our targets are to
deliver:
● 6-7% underlying revenue compound annual growth
rate (CAGR), significantly above Smith+Nephew's historical
average.
● 9-10% trading profit CAGR, built on operating
leverage and efficiencies.
● More than $1 billion in free cash flow in
2028.
● 12-13% post-tax ROIC in 2028, significantly above
our Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC), creating significant
value for shareholders.
2025 Full Year Outlook
Smith+Nephew is on-track to meet its 2025 full year target with
another year of strong revenue growth and a significant expansion
in trading profit margin.
As previously stated, we expect underlying revenue growth to be
around 5% (around 5.8% based on exchange rates prevailing on 4
December 2025).
Full year trading profit margin is now expected to be at least
19.5%, within our guided range of 19.0% to 20.0% (2024:
18.1%).
In addition, we are further raising our guidance for free cash
flow. We now expect this to be around $800 million, driven by good
working capital discipline, particularly in Orthopaedics, and
operational efficiency over the life of the 12-Point Plan. This was
originally guided to be more than $600 million for
2025.
We expect post-tax ROIC to be more than 9% for the full year,
excluding the impact of portfolio rationalisation (2024: 7.4%),
above our WACC.
Portfolio rationalisation
As part of our 12-Point Plan we have taken actions to optimise our
manufacturing footprint and drive operational efficiencies across
our network. In addition, we have also reviewed our overall product
portfolio and taken actions to rationalise and simplify. These, in
turn, have led to our new Ortho 360 operating model which will
drive improved efficiency, profitability and capital returns at the
market and product level.
As part of this new operating model and building on the portfolio
rationalisation started through the 12-Point Plan, we have
identified further opportunities to simplify our product range.
This will reduce the need for inventory and capital employed in the
business, provide a simpler and more efficient offer to our
customers, and will also allow us to focus on migrating them to our
latest technology products.
Work is ongoing to finalise the product families and individual
Stock Keeping Units (SKU's) which will be removed from the
portfolio over time, but we currently estimate that we will be able
to reduce gross inventory by around $500 million. To achieve this
significant and on-going reduction in the capital requirements of
the business, we will take a non-cash provision in our 2025
accounts which we currently estimate to be around $200
million. Combined with the expansion and redesign of our Life
Cycle Management (LCM) process, this will leave our portfolio
simpler, easier for customers to understand, and the company in a
stronger position to drive growth and improve margins and capital
returns.
2026 Full Year Outlook
Smith+Nephew is also issuing provisional guidance for full year
2026, when we expect to deliver further progress across all key
financial metrics.
● Underlying revenue growth is expected to
accelerate to around 6% for the full year (around 5.8% based on
exchange rates prevailing on 4 December 2025).
● Profit growth is expected to be ahead of revenue
growth as we deliver operating leverage.
● Free cash flow is expected to be around $800
million.
● Post-tax ROIC is expected to substantially
increase to be more than 10% for 2026, well above our
WACC.
The 2026 full year guidance will be confirmed when we issue our
2025 full year results on 2 March 2026.
Capital Markets Days
In addition to today's Capital Markets Day for institutional
investors and financial analysts in London, Smith+Nephew is hosting
an additional Capital Markets Day in New York on Thursday 11
December 2025.
Both events will be led by Chief Executive Officer Deepak Nath,
accompanied by Chief Financial Officer John Rogers and members of
the Executive Committee. Each event will include product
demonstrations for those attending in person.
Participants are encouraged to attend both events, either in person
or virtually.
In person attendance at these events requires pre-registration.
Investors and analysts should register via Smith+Nephew's website
at https://www.smith-nephew.com/en/about-us/investors.
The sessions will also be webcast and the presentations made
available via the website.
London - 8 December 2025
The London event will introduce Smith+Nephew's new strategy
following the conclusion of the 12-Point Plan, including mid-term
priorities and financial goals. This will be held at The Royal
College of Surgeons from 1pm to 5pm GMT / 8am to 12pm EST on 8
December.
New York - 11 December 2025
The New York event will provide greater detail on Smith+Nephew's
innovative portfolio that will drive the next phase of growth. This
event will be held at the New York Stock Exchange from 2pm to 6pm
GMT / 9am to 1pm EST on 11 December.
The New York event will include insight from the following
Smith+Nephew customers and Key Opinion Leaders:
●
Michael
Ast, MD, is Chief of the Knee
Service, Chief Medical Innovation Officer, and Director of
Ambulatory Surgery Center Strategy at the Hospital for Special
Surgery (HSS). Dr Ast specialises in hip and knee replacement
surgery focusing on rapid-recovery, short-stay, and outpatient
surgery. He is an expert in minimally invasive techniques and
robotics. Dr Ast will discuss the trend of joint replacements
transitioning to Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs) and the unique
ASC needs that must be addressed.
●
Ravi Bashyal, MD, FAAOS, Director of Outpatient Hip and
Knee Replacement Surgery at NorthShore University in Chicago. Dr
Bashyal specialises in robotic minimally invasive hip and knee
replacement and was an early adopter of PICO◊ to
manage the risk of surgical site complications. He has published
extensively on reducing surgical site infections and complications.
Dr Bashyal will talk about the impact of surgical site
complications in orthopaedic surgery for the patient, surgeon, and
system. He will also discuss how PICO has enabled him to manage the
risk and improve patient outcomes, and his work to educate other
surgeons on complication reduction, improving the standard of
care.
●
Steven
Haas, MD, orthopaedic surgeon
at HSS and New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. He is
also Professor of Clinical Orthopaedic Surgery at Weill Cornell
Medical College and currently serves as President of The Knee
Society. Dr Haas chaired the Knee Service at HSS for 18 years. Dr
Haas will discuss modern knee arthroplasty and the rise of
robotic-assisted knee surgery.
●
Anil Ranawat, MD, Chief of the Hip and Joint
Preservation Division of the Sports Medicine Institute at HSS and
Orthopaedic Surgeon for the New York Rangers. He is also the
Medical Director for HSS NJ and PA Department. Dr Ranawat will talk
about Smith+Nephew's comprehensive Sports Medicine product
portfolio, including how he uses REGENETEN◊ and
CARTIHEAL◊ to
improve patient outcomes and the potential he sees for advanced
enabling technologies, such as Spatial Surgery (including the
TESSA◊ Spatial
Surgery System), to shape the future of arthroscopic
surgery.
The person responsible for arranging the release of this
announcement on behalf of the Company is Helen Barraclough, Company
Secretary.
Enquiries
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Investors
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Emily Heaven
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+44 (0) 7811 919437
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Cora McCallum
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+44 (0) 1923 477433
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Craig Bijou
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+1 (475) 850-8282
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Smith+Nephew
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Media
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Charles Reynolds
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+44 (0) 1923 477314
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Smith+Nephew
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Susan Gilchrist / Ayesha Bharmal
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+44 (0) 20 7404 5959
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Brunswick
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About Smith+Nephew
Smith+Nephew is a portfolio medical technology business focused on
the repair, regeneration and replacement of soft and hard tissue.
We exist to restore people's bodies and their self-belief by using
technology to take the limits off living. We call this purpose
'Life Unlimited'. Our 17,000 employees deliver this mission every
day, making a difference to patients' lives through the excellence
of our product portfolio, and the invention and application of new
technologies across our three global business units of
Orthopaedics, Sports Medicine & ENT and Advanced Wound
Management.
Founded in Hull, UK, in 1856, we now operate in more than 100
countries, and generated annual sales of $5.8 billion in 2024.
Smith+Nephew is a constituent of the FTSE100 (LSE:SN, NYSE:SNN).
The terms 'Group' and 'Smith+Nephew' are used to refer to Smith
& Nephew plc and its consolidated subsidiaries, unless the
context requires otherwise.
For more information about Smith+Nephew, please
visit www.smith-nephew.com and follow
us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook or X.
Forward-looking Statements
This document may contain forward-looking statements that may or
may not prove accurate. For example, statements regarding expected
revenue growth and trading profit margins, market trends and our
product pipeline are forward-looking statements. Phrases such as
"aim", "plan", "intend", "anticipate", "well-placed", "believe",
"estimate", "expect", "target", "consider" and similar expressions
are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other important factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially from what is expressed or implied by
the statements. For Smith+Nephew, these factors include: conflicts
in Europe and the Middle East, economic and financial conditions in
the markets we serve, especially those affecting healthcare
providers, payers and customers; price levels for established and
innovative medical devices; developments in medical technology;
regulatory approvals, reimbursement decisions or other government
actions; product defects or recalls or other problems with quality
management systems or failure to comply with related regulations;
litigation relating to patent or other claims; legal and financial
compliance risks and related investigative, remedial or enforcement
actions; disruption to our supply chain or operations or those of
our suppliers; competition for qualified personnel; strategic
actions, including acquisitions and disposals, our success in
performing due diligence, valuing and integrating acquired
businesses; disruption that may result from transactions or other
changes we make in our business plans or organisation to adapt to
market developments; relationships with healthcare professionals;
reliance on information technology and cybersecurity; disruptions
due to natural disasters, weather and climate change related
events; changes in customer and other stakeholder sustainability
expectations; changes in taxation regulations; effects of foreign
exchange volatility; and numerous other matters that affect us or
our markets, including those of a political, economic, business,
competitive or reputational nature. Please refer to the documents
that Smith+Nephew has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended, including Smith+Nephew's most recent annual report on Form
20-F, which is available on the SEC's website at www. sec.gov, for
a discussion of certain of these factors. Any forward-looking
statement is based on information available to Smith+Nephew as of
the date of the statement. All written or oral forward-looking
statements attributable to Smith+Nephew are qualified by this
caution. Smith+Nephew does not undertake any obligation to update
or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect any change in
circumstances or in Smith+Nephew's expectations.
◊ Trademark
of Smith+Nephew. Certain marks registered in US Patent and
Trademark Office.
SIGNATURES
Pursuant
to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the
registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf
by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
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Smith & Nephew plc
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(Registrant)
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Date:
December 08, 2025
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By:
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/s/
Helen Barraclough
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Helen
Barraclough
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Company
Secretary
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