Ken Gilmartin will step down as chief executive of Wood Group after the shareholder vote on Sidara’s £206million acquisition of the Aberdeen company.
He will be replaced by Iain Torrens, currently interim group chief financial officer. He joined Wood’s board in February and was executive director and group CFO at TalkTalk Group and ICAP.
Until October last year he was chairman and non-executive director of Praxis Group, a Guernsey-based financial services firm. He is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland.
The company is now seeking a new CFO and will update on the timing of Mr Gilmartin’s departure.
Mr Torrens said: “It’s a privilege to lead Wood and our exceptional global team of over 35,000, who have remained committed to delivering for our clients through a difficult period.
“My immediate priority is delivering our full year 2024 audited accounts and half year 2025 results so we can move forward with clarity. I’m grateful for the opportunity to support our people, drive performance, and strengthen client confidence as we shape a resilient, growth-focused future for Wood.”
Shareholders will vote on the Sidara deal at a general meeting on 23 October at the company’s headquarters in Aberdeen.
It said the resolution set out in the notice is “in the best interests of the company and of its shareholders as a whole and unanimously recommends shareholders to vote in favour of it, as each of the directors intends to do in respect of their own beneficial holdings”.
The offer from Sidara, which includes a capital injection of $450 million, was made conditional on a several “highly unusual conditions”. These include the publication of Wood’s delayed 2024 accounts on or before 31 October.
In a statement on 7 October it said “it has become apparent that when the company publishes its audited accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2024, the company’s borrowings will exceed the borrowing limit.”
The Financial Conduct Authority is investigating the company’s affairs for the period 1 January 2023, to 7 November 2024.
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