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Sidara given ‘put up or shut up deadline’ for John Wood takeover

By Gavin Gibbon
Sidara John Wood takeover John Wood Group
Sidara had initially offered 205p per share in April and upped this to 230p per share the following month
  • Offer upped to 230p in May
  • Deadline extended to August 9

The deadline for Dubai engineering and consulting company Sidara’s long-running multi-billion-dollar plan to take over the UK’s John Wood Group has been extended for a third time.

Sidara, which has had three previous bids for the Scottish company rejected, upped its original offer to 230 pence sterling per share in May.

This gave Wood a valuation of £1.6 billion ($2 billion), significantly higher than the first of three bids.

Under UK takeover rules a firm offer was due to be submitted by July 5, although this was subsequently extended to July 31 to give Sidara more time to “finalise its due diligence and other preparations”.

That date has now been moved further to August 9.

On its website John Wood Group described the latest move as an “extension to put up or shut up deadline” – although it added that the deadline “can be further extended by the board of Wood, with the consent of the takeover panel”.

Sidara had initially offered 205 pence sterling per share on April 29, which valued Wood at £1.4 billion.

In its financial results for the first half of 2024 Wood reported a 6 percent year-on-year drop in revenues to $2.8 billion.

This was attributed to a move away from engineering, procurement and construction contracts and “ongoing weakness” in its minerals business.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of $210 million was up around 4 percent on H1 2023.

Last year Sidara bought a majority stake in Canadian buildings analytics specialist CopperTree Analytics and Su-Yapi, one of Turkey’s leading engineering companies.

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