Wood reports current order book of more than £4.5billon

The boss of Aberdeen’s biggest business Wood reported this morning it was making “good progress” in delivering on the growth strategy outlined last November, with a current order book of more than £4.5billion.

Chief executive Ken Gilmartin made the comment in a half-year trading update for the leading engineering and consultancy firm.

The group’s worldwide workforce is now around 35,600, with over 6,000 of them in the UK. Its North Sea operations have an offshore workforce of 1,100 - making up almost a quarter of the Aberdeen team.

The CEO also said today: “Trading shows continued good growth and margins in line with our expectations.

“We have won a number of significant contracts in energy, minerals and life sciences during the period - all testament to the exciting position Wood holds in its key growth markets.

“As we look ahead, we are confident of our delivery both for the full year and medium term, including a return to generating positive free cash flow.”

Order book up 3%

The order book at the end of June was around $6billion (£4.6billion) - up 3% on a constant-currency basis.

Revenue for the first half of this year was about $2.9billion (£2.2billion) – ahead 18% - while the adjusted EBITDA of about $195million (£150million) was a 10% improvement.

The company’s headcount was up around 5%.

Wood expects its performance for 2023 to be in line with its medium-term financial targets of adjusted EBITDA growth at a mid to high single-digit compound annual growth rate, with momentum building.

Wood was in the news earlier this year when an American suitor emerged.

Initial boost

The interest from US private-equity firm Apollo Global Management gave an initial boost to the stock-market value of Wood, but its interest in the Scottish firm later cooled – leading to a dive in the share price.

Apollo’s fifth and final proposal had been for 240p a share, and valued Wood at £1.7billion.

Wood shares were trading at just under 137p this morning.

Read the latest issue of the OGV Energy magazine HERE