Wood Group seeking 'bolt-on acquisitions'

Published on Wednesday 12 May 2010 21:01

ENERGY services specialist Wood Group said yesterday that it was still on the hunt for " bolt-on acquisitions" as the group's financial performance remained in line with expectations.

Aberdeen-based Wood, which has about 3.3 billion in annual revenues, said activities supporting oil and gas production continued to deliver a robust performance in 2010.

But Wood's engineering arm is still suffering from project delays, which will likely result in lower revenues than in 2009.

Speaking at the group's annual general meeting, chairman Sir Ian Wood said the biggest reduction on the engineering side was in the downstream, process and industrial area, where the market is expected to remain soft in the coming months.

By contrast, the group has a good list of prospects in upstream activity, where volumes are predicted to begin rising later this year.

The group said it expected further progress in the coming months on growth initiatives in areas such as Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. The latter should be bolstered by the recent acquisition of a controlling interest in Saudi engineering firm Al-Hejailan Consulting.

Wood said: "We continue to pursue a number of bolt-on acquisition opportunities to expand our geographic footprint in key growth markets."