Member Info for Hosai

FT article indicated Sidara do indeed want to get it down quickly.

True Isle, but if that value is never going to be shown on the UK stock market for a long time (with sp where we are and in 20s recently it slightly implies that) then sometimes taking quicker, certain money is still the better option.

Sparta capital the activist investor in its letter to management in April last year essentially agreed the company was undervalued when sp was 150-200p however said there is not much point in the company being listed in UK if the fair value is never going to be priced in.

https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/sparta-capital-sends-letter-to-board-of-directors-of-wood-group-302117261.html

Why would they walk they know more about it than anyone and have chosen to come back again after just 6 months.

Sidara did months of detailed due dilligence on Wood last summer and now are back again almost as soon as they were able to be, it would be extremely surprising if no offer came.

Any issues with the bid/a deal will be due to Wood not wanting/needing to sell. Which prob comes down to gaining certainty around re-financing and the review (which must be almost complete).

Looks like US markets down on tariff news, UK stocks likely down tomo though obv any direct positive news for WG would brush this off.

"The CEO and BOD of Wood Group advised all shareholders to 'hold'.

Is that not standard language in these situations?

Isle, if they sell it will show there are some genuine concerns in regards to re-financing etc. The fact that the sp went to the 20s would indicate the market believed in these concerns. Even a small chance of a large debt for equity etc would cause the board to sell imo rather than risk it.

If they reject all offers the sp would go down briefly but it would certainly show confidence in the fundamentals.

They don't have must post history, but that may be because they are in the habit of deleting their tweets. Before recent tweets last post was Nov 2023. Anyway the 175 makes me feel less likely they know anything.

"That’s a more realistic price than 110 tbh, especially if you do the research and understand the fundamentals."

On fundamentals yes, but I doubt that kind of premium over pre-bid price % would have ever been paid for so would not seem realistic in terms of Sidara bid.

I don't think twitter guy knows anything as he's now tweeting 175 - https://x.com/oilplusgasnow/status/1896545474074775761

The reason I see this as very good risk/reward is Sidara clearly want Wood having done a detailed amount of due dilligence over the summer, making 4 offers and having now returned fairly quickly. The FT seems to have further hinted at synergies and the rhetoric frames it as though a deal almost sound inevitable (awlbeit a significantly lower bid than the 230p previously contemplated).

Therefore it comes down to whether Wood accept the very likely incoming offer. If some of the bearish arguments against the fundamentals made such as problems re-financing or potential for massive debt for equity then Wood will accept the offer. If there is even 10% chance of this happening in the boards view they will accept the offer rather than take the risk.

If Wood do not see this as likely at all, and believe re-financing will not be any kind of issue they will be more likely to reject an offer unless it's a brilliant one. This will mean a temporary drop in sp though buffered by the fact that clearly the fundementals are nothing like the bears have argued and it would be a powerful encouragment to the market that the previous sp drop was sentiment based and all the arguments made by Icecool against Pokerchips etc were true.

Both of these options would make this a good buy.

"Apart from "working over the weekend" nothing has changed since Friday . No press coverage / speculation over weekend . if there is an RNS maybe, but otherwise why should anything change as there appears little external interest in a badly run company"

Well there was a slightly negative article in the FT into how well Wood has been run, however the article did also seem to imply an increased likelihood of a deal this time (just one that was much worse than had Wood accepted last year). So that is slight news of sorts.

What would JL and TS stand for?

Did they not prepare a similar list of documents last time there was interest from Sidara/Apollo? It may be a fairly standard thing.

How legit the source was isn't clear however the original FT article said Wood had considered selling off assets but preferred the idea of selling the group whole. Going against the idea of the CEO fighting to carry on.

"and currently it seems bizarre how many people posting here are eager to sell their holding for way less than it is truly worth"

Depends how you look at it, quick and certain money versus potentially more money but with more uncerainty and longer to wait.

"In less than two years, the company has failed to reach agreement on a takeover offer from private equity group Apollo that would have valued it at about £2.2bn and another from Dubai-based rival Sidara that would have valued it at £1.6bn.

Sidara this week returned for its second buyout attempt at what is now expected to be a significantly lower price.

The veteran said Wood had ignored “multiple escape chutes on the way down”, particularly the takeover approaches.

“Now shareholders are going to presumably get a much worse deal,” he said. “Shareholders have a right to be angry.”

Thanks for sharing the article. I wonder what a signficantly lower price might be, obv that means significantly lower than 230p.

Think they are just referring to the previous bid amounts with the headline.

It prob shouldn't need to be said that a random poster on twitter or ADFN knows nothing in regards to what any bid might be...it's the equivalent to Sharebel posting that he has heard it will be 20p.

Looking at Sidaras final bid last time, they offered as follows:

This final* offer price represents a premium of:

o 52.0% to the closing Wood share price on 29 April 2024 (being the date prior to the first proposal made by Sidara)

o 30.4% to Wood's 52 week high share price as at 29 April 2024 (excluding any days when Wood was in an offer period).

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/market-news/statement-re-final-possible-offer-for-wood-group/16493433

In the current situation the 52% increase would I imagine come to a paltry 40p or so.

However the 30.4% increase on 1 year high (excluding offer periods) would take it to around £1.99 a share.

No wonder there is so much uncertainty on potential bid prices.