Wood Group accepts Sidara’s takeover bid following a year-long pursuit

The Wood Group in Britain has accepted a conditional bid of 216 million pounds ($292 millions) from Dubai's Sidara. This ends a long-running pursuit involving multiple offers and rejections.

Sidara's 30-pence per share offer will see it assume Wood Group's $1.6 billion debt and inject $450 millions of cash in the company.

Wood Group must publish its delayed results, and ensure that certain debt facilities will not be terminated.

A British oilfield service firm delayed publishing its annual results in April due to an audit that was pending, resulting in a temporary suspension.

Sidara dropped its bid for Wood Group earlier this week after the Financial Conduct Authority of Britain launched an investigation into Wood Group's charges and contracts.

The bid price represents a small fraction of Wood Group’s value of approximately 1.66 billion pounds in 2023, when the company first attracted interest from takeover parties such as U.S. based private equity firm Apollo Global Management.

The embattled firm said on Friday that its cash flow was not sufficient to fund operations, and it would continue to cut costs through 2025.

Wood announced earlier on Friday that it would sell the North American Transmission and Distribution Engineering business for $110,000,000 as part of its efforts to reduce debt by selling off its non-core companies.

The Wood Group's current capital structure is not sustainable, Wood's Board said in a press release.

It said that Chairman Roy Franklin who planned to exit the firm as soon as its future direction became clear is now expected to leave after the court meeting in January 2026 when shareholders vote on the acquisition.

Franklin, in a press release on Sidara’s offer, said that the Wood Board was unanimously of the opinion that it is the best solution for all parties.

Talal Shair, CEO of Sidara, said, "This transaction will allow us to expand into new markets and serve a wider range of clients globally." Reporting by Yamini Kalya and Raechel Thankam Job from Bengaluru. Shilpa Majumdar, Mark Potter and Shilpa Majumdar edited the article.

(source: Reuters)