Oil engineer Wood Group to cut hundreds of jobs

Wood Group, the London-listed oil sector engineer, is cutting hundreds of jobs nearly a year after talks about a takeover collapsed.

Sky News understands that the company is expected to announce next week alongside its full-year results that it has launched a new cost efficiency programme that sources said would affect white-collar workers globally.

One insider suggested that roughly 200 roles would be axed – a tiny proportion of its 36,000-strong workforce.

Wood Group employs roughly 6,500 people in the UK – the majority of whom are based in Aberdeen.

On Wednesday, the company denied a suggestion that Ken Gilmartin, its chief executive, was planning to relocate to the US.

A number of other senior executives at Wood Group are understood to have made the US their permanent base, reflecting its significant presence there.

Last year, Apollo Global Management, the buyout firm, walked away from a takeover valuing it at £2.2bn including debt, after making four separate offers for it.

The company’s shares have fallen by a quarter over the last 12 months, leaving it with a market capitalisation of just over £1bn.

They now trade at about one-third less than the 240p-a-share contained in Apollo’s final proposal.

A spokesman for Wood Group declined to comment.