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Dubai’s Sidara wins extension in John Wood Group bid

The London-listed contractor, John Wood Group, has granted the extension saying 'there can be no certainty that an offer will be made' Arvind Vallabh/Unsplash
The London-listed contractor John Wood Group has granted the extension saying 'there can be no certainty that an offer will be made'
  • Sidara values Wood Group at £1.6bn
  • Significantly higher than initial bid
  • Extension granted until July 31

Dubai engineering and consulting company Dar Al-Handasah – known as Sidara – has been granted an extension in its quest to buy London-listed contractor John Wood Group.

Sidara had proposed an offer of 230 pence sterling per share, giving Wood a valuation of £1.58 billion ($2 billion), significantly higher than the first of three bids, which were thrown out.

Under UK takeover rules a final offer was due to be submitted by July 5.



However, a statement from Wood confirmed an extension to the deadline has been granted.

“Sidara has recently notified the board that it requires more time to finalise its due diligence and other preparations,” it said.

Sidara now has until 5pm on July 31 to either make a firm offer for Wood or walk away from any deal.

The statement said the deadline can be further extended by the board of Wood, with the consent of the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers.

“There can be no certainty that an offer will be made,” it said.

Sidara had initially offered 205 pence sterling per share on April 29, which valued Wood at £1.42 billion ($1.65 billion).

Sidara has more than 20,000 employees spanning 308 offices and 60 countries. It includes global architecture firm Perkins & Will, global engineering company TYLin and specialist project management company Currie & Brown within its portfolio.

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