Wood Group shareholders approved a change to the company’s borrowing limits, clearing a potential obstacle to the company’s takeover by Middle East group Sidara.
At a general meeting a resolution was passed by 96.56% of the total votes cast, with 3.44% against.
Earlier this month the board had warned that breaching its borrowing limit would have “serious and adverse implications” for the acquisition.
Following today’s the board will ask shareholders to vote on the proposed £216 million acquisition at a meeting next month.
Ken Gilmartin will step down as chief executive of Wood Group after the vote and 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 seeking a new CFO and will update on the timing of Mr Gilmartin’s departure.
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.
The Financial Conduct Authority is investigating the company’s affairs for the period 1 January 2023, to 7 November 2024.
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