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Sidara has made a £242mn offer to buy Wood Group less than a year after walking away from a £1.5bn bid for the crisis-hit UK oil services and engineering business.
Wood said on Monday that United Arab Emirates-based Sidara had made a “nonbinding conditional proposal” to buy the group for 35p a share, a 40 per cent premium on its 25p closing price last week.
The offer included a possible injection of $450mn by Sidara into Wood, it said. Wood said its board would be minded to recommend that shareholders accept a firm offer if one was made by Sidara, a privately held network of engineering and design companies run from the UAE and London.
Sidara would also take on Wood’s outstanding debt of approximately $1.1bn, much of which needs to be refinanced by October.
The proposed price is about 85 per cent lower than the offer discussed by Sidara last year before it walked away citing “geopolitical risks and financial market uncertainty”.
Shares in UK-listed Wood have collapsed in recent months as it struggles with high debt levels and questions about its governance.
Wood said last month that it would need to restate financial results affecting the past three years and that its accounts for the year 2024 would be delayed, meaning its shares were likely to be suspended from trading at the end of April.
It added that an independent review of its projects division had found “cultural failings”, including information being withheld from auditors.
Wood said on Monday that Sidara had made “significant progress” on its due diligence, but that any firm offer would depend on Wood publishing its audited accounts for 2024.
The Financial Times first reported Sidara’s latest takeover talks for Wood in February.
Wood said on Monday that combining with Sidara “would create a leading global engineering consulting company” while Wood would “operate as a standalone, client-facing brand”.
Wood’s stock gained more than 14 per cent in early trading on Monday.
Under UK takeover rules, Sidara has until April 17 to make a firm offer for Wood or walk away.
Additional reporting from David Sheppard
