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Pokerchips

They mentioned on teh webcast that while they announced the strategic review in November it was being looked at for some time before that so suspect the options and any advise/suggestions from Blackrock were well advanced befor ethe November announcement

Pokerchips

I was also a little concerned at the selling off of what is considered a pretty damn good part of their business. During teh webcast lots of questions around this and what the intent is with the proceeds. Pretty well answered in that proceeds will go into three 'buckets"
De Leveraging (free cashlow)
Investment (Energy Transition and Decarbonisation)
Shareholder (Special/restart dividend/Share buy back?)

I have to assume getting rid of a high performing business they believe they can target aquisitions which will compensate and better fit the energy transition/decarbonisation piece.

Interestingly their oil and gas exposure is going to increase overall once they sell but they seem to believe the business they are getting from oil and gas is in the ernegy transition and decarbonisation piece rather than teh traditional project and maintenance support.

Overall I thought the webcast was quite good and certainly more upbeat than in teh past.

This surprised me coming out of the gate like that this morning!! Will log in to the webcast to guage tone

This is not good. I can see me selling more of these today - really hard to see this going anywhere but down on the headline numbers being presented here

4thtigher

Unfortunately it doesnt look like the market is reading all of this!! this one is down considerably today which may be people hedging their bets on the update due tomorrow.

I would have liked to know how much of this new work in the Middle East is new as oppossed to renewal of existing work which may have already been factored into their revenue/profit projections. I also hope this is not an attempt to "soften" a poor/mediocre update

https://www.woodplc.com/news/latest-press-releases/2022/wood-to-enable-expansion-of-the-largest-rapid-transit-system-in-south-america

https://www.woodplc.com/news/latest-press-releases/2022/wood-propels-growth-in-middle-east-with-580m-of-wins-in-2021

Dontknow9

I worked for them for 40 years in management position all over the world until i retired a year ago. I know the senior management team quite well. Oil and Gas revenue is very good basic work I'll give you that but its a real volume business. you need twice as much of it as yoy do other business to deliver the same return to the bottom line. I think you will find O&G is less than 50% of their business now and has been reducing over the last 5 years - that was part of the thinking behind the AFW acquisition - buy it, clean it up, sell the nuclear and keep the civil/infrastructure/consulting piece.
Im not saying its not good to win £160m of O&G business I,m just saying "fantastic" it is not especially when some of it is really only keeping some existing business

Dontknow9

Good news but hardly "fantastic". One is the extension odf an existing contract. While £160m of revenue is welcome its in the low margin business stream and will not produce double digit margins.
As for being a solid foundation for diversification I dont understand that comment. Its in traditional business stream which is what Wood are trying to diversify out of.

Pokerchips

Agreed. I did this for years on share options with Wood before I retired a few years back. never a great time ot pay taxes but as far as options go it particularly bad when the share price is low!!
I also think the directors pocketed more shares this year than they did last and as the reward is based on performance (company as well as individual targets) then it looks like the company has indeed performed better.

Whats going on in early trading today - an incredible early drop after yesterdays move!

Coaster

Wish i could share your apparent optimism on this but its dying more quickly every day at the moment, Any share can lose 5% a day but this one is doing that and more every few days. Climbing back to anything like the consensus is going to be really difficult and i can see more downgrades on the not too distant horizon.

This share is being slaughtered by the market today. I'm tempted to nibble again at this level but my head is saying leave well alone at the moment. It needs to show more than one day of positive movement. Heading for a new 52 week low and getting there pretty fast!

Pokerchips

I understand but these sort or announcements dont help in any way.

It looks like all yesterdays gains (and more) are going to disappear again. Back to the volatility associated with the stock.

oh dear!!!

"JEFFERIES CUTS JOHN WOOD PRICE TARGET TO 130 (150) PENCE - 'UNDERPERFORM'

and another .....
https://www.woodplc.com/news/latest-press-releases/2021/wood-to-drive-refinery-efficiency-on-ultra-clean-fuel-project

Another contract win

https://www.woodplc.com/news/latest-press-releases/2021/Wood-awarded-Front-End-Engineering-for-Safaniyah-and-Manifa-plant-expansions

couldn't resist a nibble at 185!!

2phevs

Should have waited - its going they are going to get cheaper!

This is now approaching 50% of its value only one year ago and will test 52 week lows soon. Shorters winning on this one