LONDON, March 13, 2026, 17:41 GMT
RS Group PLC shares dipped 2.1%, trading at 631 pence as of 16:35 GMT on Friday, according to company data. 1
This shift is notable—RS won’t provide another scheduled update until its 2025/26 pre-close trading statement hits in late March. Annual results follow on May 20. Until then, the market’s left with scant new information from the company. 2
RS announced March 3 it’s acquiring BPX Group—a UK and Ireland distributor specializing in industrial automation and control products—for £27 million upfront, with a possible additional earn-out of as much as £3 million. Automation and control, RS noted, already make up more than 40% of group revenue. 3
Raj Patel, managing director of RS UK & Ireland, told Automation Magazine the acquisition would “strengthen our product technical capabilities” and speed up the group’s growth plans in the market. BPX will remain an independent business inside RS Group, according to the publication. 4
As of Jan. 19, RS’s analyst consensus—covering 15 analysts—projects revenue for 2025/26 at £2.921 billion. Adjusted operating profit, which excludes certain one-offs, is pegged at £265 million, and earnings per share come in at 38.0 pence. Based on Friday’s closing price, the shares change hands at about 16.6 times forward earnings. 5
No lift from the wider market picture. On Friday, Reuters noted that London’s main stock indexes looked set for a second straight weekly drop, as Britain’s economy flatlined in January and oil prices stayed north of $100 a barrel—leaving the Bank of England’s rate path anything but clear. “Persistently high energy prices” are the “real risk” if the situation around the Strait of Hormuz keeps dragging on, said Berenberg analyst Jonathan Stubbs. 6
Peer action split. Bunzl climbed 2.1% on Friday, but Diploma slid 2.9%. RS’s drop, then, wasn’t a broad UK distribution exodus. 7
RS calls itself a global distributor serving industrial customers with maintenance, repair and operations products plus service solutions. On its results page, the BPX deal remains listed as the most recent 2026 announcement. That leaves the late-March update as the next scheduled event for investors watching to see if the current share-price slide is just temporary turbulence or signals something more significant. 8
