Wood (LON:WG) has pushed back the “put up or shut up” date for Sidara’s takeover bid by a week as discussions “remain ongoing.”
The north-east headquartered business granted Sidara access to due diligence materials in June as it mulled the final offer, which valued the firm at around £1.6bn.
Now Sidara, also known as Dar Al-Handasah Consultants Shair and Partners, had until the end of this month to give a final offer under takeover rules.
Now the firm will have until close of play on 9 August Wood shared in a stock market update.
The firm added: “This deadline can be further extended by the board of Wood, with the consent of the Takeover Panel.”
This is the second time the takeover bid deadline has been pushed back by the Aberdeen headquartered firm.
Sidara had until 5pm on 3 July to confirm its “‘final offer” in a previous bid to acquire Wood at 230p per share, but the Wood board and the independent Takeover Panel agreed to an extension until 31 July.
Wood shared today: “There can be no certainty that an offer will be made. Further announcements will be made as appropriate.”
Last month the engineering business shared a trading update which left much to be desired by shareholders.
At the time Zoe Gillespie, investment manager at RBC Brewin Dolphin, explained: “Speculation continues around Wood’s future, with Sidara having to make an improved offer or drop its bid to buy the company by July 31.
“The most recent bid valued Wood at a 52% premium to its current share price, putting pressure on the management team to deliver on plans to reverse the engineering group’s fortunes, after the share price fell to levels last seen in 2009.”
Wood’s recent half year trading update showed adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) in the first half of 2024 of around $210million (£163.6m), up around 4%.
The firm’s order book is also up by 2%, however, its revenue is down by 6%.
On revenues, the firm argues that it has “good growth in operations” which are being offset by “expected lower revenue in projects” as a result of its “strategic shift away from EPC work, lower pass-through activity and ongoing weakness in our minerals business.”
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