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UK specialty chemicals company making autocatalysts and refining/trading platinum-group metals, plus clean-energy catalysts.
UK specialty chemicals company making autocatalysts and refining/trading platinum-group metals, plus clean-energy catalysts.
Makes the catalyst coatings that clean car exhaust, sold to automakers per part and priced to reflect the platinum-group metals they contain, while its metals business refines and recycles those metals for fees. Vehicle output and metal prices therefore both matter. It dropped its battery-materials effort in 2022 to focus on its core metals and catalyst skills.
In one line: A UK catalytic-converter and PGM-refining leader.
Moat: narrow (process know-how, scale, IP / patents). Deep PGM refining expertise and automaker qualification built over decades.
Headquarters: London, UK · Founded: 1817 · Employees: 9,500
Size Johnson Matthey (JMAT.L) is a United Kingdom Materials company (Chemicals: Major Diversified) with a market value of $4.01B, the 107th largest of 363 United Kingdom companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at £2,400 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 14.0%, against -9.2% for the median peer and +3.6% for the United Kingdom market (cap-weighted) — 5th highest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 7.7% over the last twelve months (peer median +4.8%); the operating margin is 2.6% (peer median 7.4%).
Valuation It trades at 13.3× forward earnings against a peer median of 16.7× (4th cheapest of 19).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 10% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is -4%, so the hurdle is +14 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 2.4 points below its cost of capital (11.0% WACC).
Next results Next results expected around 19 Nov 2026 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | £12.6B | £12.6B | £11.0B | £12.8B | £14.9B |
| Revenue growth | — | +14% | -14% | -14% | — |
| Gross profit | £629M | £629M | £684M | £923M | £989M |
| EBITDA | £479M | £479M | £485M | £602M | £692M |
| Net income | -£96.0M | -£96.0M | £373M | £108M | £260M |
| Free cash flow | £159M | £159M | £62.0M | £216M | -£28.0M |
| Capital expenditure | £239M | £239M | £301M | £368M | £316M |
| Total debt | n/a | £1.41B | £1.70B | £1.49B | £1.67B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johnson Matthey JMAT.L | $4.01B | +14% | +8% | 3% | 13.3× | 9.6% |
| Basf BAS.DE | $52.6B | +2% | -4% | 7% | 16.8× | 5.7% |
| Clariant CLN.SW | $4.32B | +46% | -7% | 10% | 16.0× | -3.4% |
| Sibanye Stillwater Limited Sponsored ADR SBSW | $6.30B | -29% | +59% | 26% | 5.9× | n/a |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | JMAT.L | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | -1.9% | -11.5% | 6th highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +14.0% | -9.2% | 5th highest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -5.3% | -32.3% | highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +7.7% | +4.8% | 10th highest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 2.6% | 7.4% | 4th lowest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 13.3× | 16.7× | 4th cheapest of 19 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 9.6% | 9.5% | 7th least demanding of 13 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | -4.0% | +7.3% | lowest of 13 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +13.6 pp | +2.4 pp | 3rd most demanding of 13 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -2.4 pp | -1.9 pp | 9th lowest of 21 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.8× | 2.5× | 6th least indebted of 12 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johnson Matthey JMAT.L | United Kingdom | $4.01B | +14% | +8% | 3% | 13.3× | 9.6% | -4.0% |
| Mitsui Chemicals 4183.T | Japan | $4.08B | -9% | -3% | 6% | 10.7× | 1.9% | +6.6% |
| Avient AVNT | United States | $4.17B | +23% | +5% | 11% | 13.0× | 9.9% | +0.1% |
| Hubei Xingfa Chemicals 600141.SS | China | $4.19B | -27% | +4% | 8% | 15.3× | n/a | n/a |
| Wacker Chemie WCH.DE | Germany | $4.42B | -24% | -5% | -1% | 33.0× | n/a | n/a |
| Kuraray 3405.T | Japan | $3.52B | +14% | +3% | 7% | 15.0× | -0.2% | +8.3% |
| Perimeter Solutions PRM | United States | $4.83B | -7% | +24% | -51% | 18.3× | 36.6% | +14.0% |
| Kingfa Sci. & Tech 600143.SS | China | $4.96B | -28% | -1% | 3% | 24.6× | -1.2% | +13.3% |
| Arkema AKE.PA | France | $4.96B | -9% | -6% | 5% | 13.7× | 12.5% | +2.8% |
| Tokyo Ohka Kogyo 4186.T | Japan | $5.03B | -30% | +22% | 21% | 17.8× | 19.9% | +15.1% |
| Grandit 688549.SS | China | $2.89B | +36% | +40% | -1% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| CES Energy Solutions CEU.TO | Canada | $2.82B | +4% | +11% | 10% | 14.1× | 9.2% | +22.9% |
| Ecopro 086520.KS | South Korea | $6.55B | -57% | +11% | 9% | 31.5× | n/a | n/a |
| Nippon Shokubai 4114.T | Japan | $2.27B | +11% | +4% | 6% | 16.2× | 4.1% | +7.9% |
| Hubei Sinophorus Electronic Materials 688545.SS | China | $2.24B | +11% | +75% | 11% | 68.3× | n/a | n/a |
| Aether Industries AETHER.NS | India | $2.20B | +29% | +31% | 25% | 72.6× | n/a | n/a |
| Element Solutions ESI | United States | $7.61B | -29% | +40% | 14% | 15.0× | 16.6% | +6.6% |
| Ingevity NGVT | United States | $2.07B | -21% | -12% | 25% | 10.4× | -0.9% | -0.8% |
| Eternal Materials 1717.TW | Taiwan | $2.06B | -27% | -2% | 5% | 17.2× | 19.9% | +1.2% |
| Zhejiang Yongtai Technology 002326.SZ | China | $2.04B | -40% | +38% | 11% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Qingdao Huicheng Environmental Technology 300779.SZ | China | $2.02B | -9% | -13% | 5% | 129.3× | n/a | n/a |