Member Info for Lochnagary

The good news is that their reason for withdrawing is nothing to do with the performance, or quality of Wood, but rather global financial uncertainty and geopolitical risks. So, people won’t have to wonder if Sidara found a cause for concern during their due- diligence. That is positive for Wood.

RNS says Sidara will not bid. Down we go.

It’s hard to see how the BoD can recommend a 230p offer. Remember, the BoD were reluctant to engage with Sidara when the 230p offer was first made, and they only engaged after major shareholders urged them to. I think Sidara will need to sweeten their offer slightly to get a recommendation. But it shouldn’t take this long for that to happen…

The old saying…” a watched kettle never boils” springs to mind.

NSS22…unfortunately moving our listing to America won’t reduce the UK tax burden, as the producing assets are still in the UK. The only way to avoid the UK tax, is to sell the UK assets…but I can’t see a buyer for them in this fiscal climate. Economic vandalism at its worst.

If Sidara request an extension, I hope they are told No. They have had ample time to do their DD at appropriate level, and any request for a further extension, must be for other reasons. Whatever the reason, their procrastination cannot be allowed to distract our BOD from the serious business of running our company to improve shareholder value, any more. The Put Up Or Shutup provisions are in the Takeover Code for a reason!

The long stop date is September 25, not 24.

Just sold my last batch at a small loss. I think the market thinks that KeySight will either reduce their offer, or abandon the takeover. Even if it proceeds, it won’t complete for many months (between late Q4 24 and early Q2 25). That is lot of opportunity lost in the market, so I will forego the 25 p and move on….

Spirent issued a trading update late this afternoon. It’s a strange time to issue a trading update, but perhaps the timing is related to today’s global IT outage. The trading update isn’t very good, so it’s just as well that KeySight are in the process of taking us over, other wise our share price would probably be less than £1.

AA2…thank you for clarifying. I had just sent the kids out to get some hemlock, but relieved it won’t be necessary now.

AA2…I can’t see the “except oil & gas phrase on the BBC site. Are these your own words, or did she actually use them?

Wood should tell them to sling their hook. If they can’t complete their DD in almost 4 weeks, there is something far wrong. Wood management have a business to run, and this protracted indulgence of Sidara is a distraction they don’t need.

If Sidara’s DD gives the Wood a clean bill of health, I would expect Sidara to offer slightly more than 230p, for the BoD to recommend the offer. The BoD only gave Sidara access to their accounts under pressure from some major shareholders. It does not mean that the BoD have to recommend the offer. Unless Sidara intend to replace all of the Wood senior management, it would be in their interest to increase the offer slightly to get the BoD’s recommendation and keep the Wood management team sweet.

I think the main reason he is keeping a low profile, is because of he is Jewish, and Labour don’t want the anti-semitism row to erupt during the election campaign, or to loose potential pro-Palestinian voters. I’m sure we will see a lot more of him, once they are in office.

Sidara have now had 3 weeks to do their due diligence. If they had found a material problem during this time, I think we would have heard by now. So, the longer this goes on without an announcement, the more confident I feel that an offer of 230p (or possibly slightly higher if the BOD can negotiate it up) will be coming our way.

NSS…I think yesterdays drop was due to broker comment, that the only way Labour could achieve the EPL tax receipts they are forecasting, is for Labour to back-date their application of the increased EPL (78% and remove allowance “loopholes”) to April. So Harbour would pay more tax than the market was forecasting. I haven't seen anything from Labour saying they would back-date the change, but fear of this happening has spooked the SP.

“Edinburgh-based fund manager Aberforth Partners, one of the largest investors in small UK quoted companies, recently sent a letter to dozens of chairmen warning against accepting underpriced deals, according to City sources.”

I’m surprised the share price is still languishing in the mid-180s. I guess this means the market thinks the bid will not succeed at 230p. I think the BOD will be under pressure from their big shareholders to engage and get the deal done. I hope they do.

Apparently the Viavi bid has lapsed…so the KeySight bid is now the only offer on the table. Fingers crossed the competition authorities don’t scupper it.

Https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/4e23bf50-f30f-417c-a4e7-810fad889ae0?shareToken=76313f92ed3a414d1815579102b2c788

The Times says that analysts say the latest Sidara bid is equivalent to Apollo’s 240p on an enterprise value basis, because the company’s debt has increased since last year.

Mr P…I think Apollo walked away because the timing of their proposed 240p offer and due-diligence coincided with the banking crisis in America during the Spring of 2023. Remember some of the regional banks needed to be bailed out / rescued…SVB etc. Apollo proposed a cash offer, and it is likely that Apollo would need to borrow that money. Apollo probably thought it was not the right time to borrow $1.6 billion, when the American banking system was in crisis. It’s possible that they found something during their due-diligence that they didn’t like, but I think this would have known by now (in the annual report) if it I had been a material issue.