Charlotte, North Carolina-headquartered conglomerate Honeywell International is reportedly making plans to split into two separate publicly traded companies. The decision came after pressure from activist investor Elliott Management.
According to Bloomberg, Honeywell intends to split its operations into one company that will focus on automation and another that will deal in the aerospace and defense sector. The finer details of the split have yet to be finalized by the company’s board, although the expectation is that Honeywell officially confirms the news upon sharing its fourth-quarter earnings in February.
Honeywell started pondering a break up in December, shortly after Elliott amassed more than a $5 billion-worth stake in the company. Elliott has since been pushing the company to streamline its operations and rework its portfolio and reportedly believes a split into two companies is the best path forward.
At the time, Elliott stated that the company needs to make decisive steps in order to “realize its full potential.” Analysts are also looking favorably towards a split, especially since Honeywell’s aerospace and defense unit has the potential to be valued at approximately $90 billion to $120 billion as a standalone business. Honeywell currently has a market cap of $142.72 billion.
The news about a potential breakup sent Honeywell’s shares almost 4% up at one point on Monday before the stock gave up most of its gains later in the session. At $219.59 per share, the stock is down 3.55% from the start of 2025.