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(Sharecast News) - Wood Group reported a drop in first-half profit on Thursday ahead of its conditonal takeover by Sidara.
In the six months to 30 June, adjusted earnings before interest and tax fell 21.3% from the same period a year earlier to $63m, with revenue down 13.3% to $2.4bn.
Wood attributed the revenue decline to delays in key client programmes in Projects and Operations, lower pass-through activity in Projects and the fact that trading was impacted by uncertainty around the company's financial position, which led to some delays in progressing bids and starting secured work.
The order book ticked up 5.9% to $6.5bn.
Wood Group announced in August that it had accepted a £216m takeover offer from Sidara, that would will see the Dubai-based engineering and consulting firm provide a cash injection of $450m.
The offer was however subject to the publication of Wood's audited accounts on or before 31 October 2025, among others things.
Of Sidara's $450m capital injection, $250m will be made available once the deal has been approved by Wood shareholders and the remaining $200m will be made available when the takeover completes.
Shares in Wood Group were suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange after it missed the end of April deadline for publishing its full-year 2024 accounts.
The company said on Thursday: "The first half of 2025 was a period of significant uncertainty related to the independent review, the delay in publication of our 2024 audited accounts and weakening of our financial position. The trading in the first half of this year, and our outlook, are reflective of these pressures.
"Crucially, despite these challenges, clients have continued to award us significant work with an order book at 30 June 2025 of $6.5 billion. The ability to turn this order book into revenue was restricted in the period by the macro backdrop, including delays to some key client programmes, and the uncertainty over Wood's financial position.
"The publication of our 2024 audited accounts and HY25 results represent an important step towards delivery of the Sidara offer which, if approved by shareholders, will lead to a significant injection of capital to the group and increased certainty for Wood, which in turn should help us pursue further client opportunities into the new year."
Wood said that given "continued uncertainty", it was not providing any financial guidance, having previously removed its profit forecasts in the Sidara Scheme document published in September 2025.
