Wood Group’s £600million-plus takeover of smaller Aberdeen rival PSN was cleared yesterday by the Office of Fair Trading.
The OFT said it had decided not to refer the deal to the Competition Commission.
Energy service giant Wood welcomed the announcement and said it expected the acquisition to be completed by the end of next month.
News of the OFT decision came on the same day PSN announced a surge in annual profits.
It said 2010 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were ahead 21% to £62.28million, while turnover was up by £13million to £720million
Chief financial officer Duncan Skinner said: “Our fifth year in business was a landmark year in the PSN growth story, for a number of reasons. Revenue for 2010 was 7% higher than planned, we achieved a 21% increase in our earnings and we closed the year with $87million (£53.46million) cash in the bank.
“Most notably was the fact we increased our backlog of work to a record high of $3.67billion (£2.25billion) with $2.6billion (£1.59billion) of that secured over the course of 2010.
“We had a 68% average win rate from work we bid on and I am particularly proud of the fact we were 100% successful in renewing and extending all of our expiring contracts with customers, which demonstrates the strength of our relationships and ability to deliver for our customers.
“Major new contract wins underlined our most successful year to date. Notably, the Shell integrated services contract and the Shell Brent Delta decommissioning services contract in the UK.
“We also won our first major contract in the refining sector after we were awarded the maintenance services contract for Caltex in Australia and an engineering services contract from EnCana signalled a recovery in the economic climate in the western Canada basin which was a major triumph for our business in Calgary.”
Mr Skinner said the most exciting development in the business in 2010 was the deal to merge PSN with the production facility operations of Wood Group.
He added: “This deal allows us to accelerate our growth strategy and provides further development opportunities for our employees around the world.”
Wood Group could re-enter Britain’s top share index later this month, data from index compiler FTSE group suggested yesterday.