Home Industry Energy Sidara shelves plans to buy UK’s Wood Group citing geopolitical risks Sidara had received a deadline extension twice, over June and July, to make a final offer for Wood Group by Reuters August 5, 2024 Image credit: Getty Images Dubai’s Sidara said, on Monday, it was walking away from its plan to buy UK’s John Wood Group, citing rising geopolitical risks and uncertainty in the financial market, prompting the British engineering group’s shares to plunge 40 per cent. Wood had rejected Sidara’s previous four buyout attempts, citing valuation concerns. The Dubai-based engineering and consulting firm had, until this Friday, to make a firm offer or walk away for at least six months. There are growing concerns that the 10-month conflict in Gaza could spread in the Middle East, a key growth area for Wood’s strategy. Wood, which provides consultation, management of assets and engineering services for the energy and materials sector, operates in more than 60 countries with the Middle East and Africa contributing about 18 per cent of its total revenue, according to the group’s 2023 annual report. Wood Group’s decline Wood said on Monday, it was confident in its strategic directions and affirmed forecasts for 2024 and next year with expectations for core earnings growth to exceed its medium-term target and significant free cash flow in 2025. Sidara had previously approached Scotland-based Wood Group with proposals ranging from 205 pence to 230 pence per share, with the latest offer valuing Wood Group at about GBP1.56bn ($1.99 bn), which it had said would be its final offer. Sidara had received a deadline extension twice, over June and July, to make a final offer for Wood Group. Sidara is the second suitor to walk away from Wood in the past 15 months after US- based Apollo Global Management abandoned its GBP1.7bn bid for the UK-listed company following five approaches that Wood rejected. Activist shareholder Sparta Capital Management has been pushing Wood Group to consider either selling itself or reconsider its UK listing. Wood Group shares have lost more than 87 per cent since their all-time high of 927 pence hit in August 2013. Read: UK’s John Wood Group ‘discussing’ Sidara’s possible takeover proposal Tags Apollo Global Management John Wood Sidara Sparta Capital Management You might also like Abu Dhabi fund Mubadala invests in data centre firm Yondr New era of private credit growth highlights its opaque nature, Moody’s says UK’s John Wood Group ‘discussing’ Sidara’s possible takeover proposal Apollo backs Mubadala Capital’s bespoke investments
