Aberdeen-based engineering group Wood has completed the £250 million sale of its nuclear business days after getting the green light from the competition watchdog,
Last week the company secured clearance from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for the deal with American giant Jacobs. The sale, which was agreed last August, will help Wood slash its debts.
Wood's nuclear business holds major contracts involving the decommissioning of Dounreay in Caithness and Sellafield in Cumbria. It took on much of the nuclear business with the acquisition of Amec Foster Wheeler in 2017.
Wood today said the cash proceeds from the deal and the recent sale of Wood’s industrial services business to German group Kaefer have generated a total of £325 million.
David Kemp, Wood’s chief financial officer, said: “Future portfolio optimisation will continue to be driven by our strategic objective of building a premium, differentiated, higher margin business focused on energy and built environment end markets. The sale of our nuclear business and other recent divestments have also enabled us to accelerate progress towards our leverage target.”
