(Reuters) -Honeywell International said on Monday its board is considering a possible separation of its aerospace business as it continues to review its business portfolio, sending the conglomerate’s shares up nearly 3% in premarket trading.
Since taking charge last year, Honeywell’s chief executive Vimal Kapur has aimed to align the company’s portfolio with the so-called megatrends of automation, aviation and energy transition.
The board has made significant progress to date and the company plans to provide an update when it reports fourth-quarter results, the company said Monday.
The review comes after activist investor Elliott Investment Management called for a split of Honeywell’s aerospace and automation businesses after taking a more than $5 billion stake in the company in November.
“We believe the portfolio transformation led by Vimal and his team is the right path for Honeywell,” Elliott said in a statement Monday.
Honeywell had also announced in November that it would sell its personal protective equipment business to Protective Industrial Products for about $1.33 billion in cash.
The conglomerate also bought the security businesses of Carrier for $4.95 billion and aerospace and defense company CAES Systems for $1.9 billion as part of its broader shift.
(Reporting by Shivansh Tiwary and Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
