Member Info for markbantam

I repeat . The Pension fund trustees have issued a letter to members (that asked) that their position is that there is no agreement in place to return any current surplus funds to WG. In the light of the current situation, other options such as insurance buyout were still being considered with the primary aim to protect the pension fund 's liabilities as required by law).

Reading between the lines, the Trustees were concerned that if funds were returned then they would be be putting the pension fund at risk if market conditions changed and a deficit arose which WG / Sidara didn't cover.

The pensions trustees have a duty of care to pensioners, not the Company. The pension trustees have confirmed to pensioners, if they has asked, that there is currently no agreement in place to return any monies of surplus to the Company and in the light of the situation are looking at other options such as Insurance Company buyout.

Yes a red day all around. For a very loose comparison I have (had)two shares subject to a current takeover WG and WHR. WHR, unlike WG has a preliminary offer of 115 but even they has fallen back to mid 90's today. Fortunately 1 sold last week at 107. Wish I had done the same on WG when I had a decent profit but now just need to wait for the offer . So only thing is hold your nerve. If it all goes belly up, well that's life!

Wood Group are unable to access the pension surplus without the agreement of the Pensions Trustees, which I have been told is currently not in place. A statement has been made to WG DB pension members to that effect, but only if they have made an enquiry.

Agree with your post and it costs nothing to be polite. Correcting misinformation is good but then posters should not rise to the bait and remember "continue an argument with an idiot and both of you end up looking like idiots" . Many examples today. It is just tedious so just filter them

"Furtermore, WG employees received a memo from Gilmartin on Monday basically parroting the extension RNS but also adding that they were extremely limited by regulators with respect to how much information they could provide to both employees and the wider market."

Also I believe, WG pensions members can, by request get the Trusts current view on their approach to the current situation with regard to "surplus return" and safeguarding the pension pot.

A debate going on diversity based on a link to WG by Mr Exec. Perhaps for balance look at Sidra 2023 or 2024 Annual report .

https://indd.adobe.com/view/94541fae-4a37-4cea-b5c1-f776a8e61ec9

I can't see much difference in the "published " approach so to me is non issue in terms of WG company performance. Its just poor management

Talies Classic con - playing the "victim" when caught out

agree

"the sky is falling in" said chicken licken to the pis. who, out of the pis are the henny penny, ****y locky, ducky lucky, goosey loosey, and turkey lurkey?

join him and all suffer the fate at the hands of foxy loxy, the shorter

Descendent of Robert !

It is great that the share price is "being held" below 40 . Allows the ones who want to accumulate more shares with a lower risk (if no deal happens & price retreats to 20s) than say if the price rose to 50. Good for the ones who bought in the 20's and sold at 40 and made themselves a profit. It all depends on your situation (risk/reward) and each person knows their own and should be comfortable with it. I have no sympathy for those who lose their shirt on deals.

ChartaRex and Stumpy - good posts. My view on where a bid will land is based on following,

Maximum high parameter - 2 year share price ~150 so won't be higher and as situation has changed then will be much lower

Low Parameter - 20s following announcement of review - won't be this low as II won't accept it

Mid Parameter -Share price before review ~70 impact as BOD state will be good share point

Add 20% premium to 70 and get 84p

Sidara won't want to overpay. IIs may accept this to shot of this dog and move onto something more profitable. PIs can go and do one as are irrelevant . It all depends on reaching an agreement

"Wood is a going concern with 35,000 brilliant minds working with it. Even the Knowledge base of Wood should be valued at 2 billion pounds."

Brilliant minds -That made laugh. It's primarily an engineering service contractor - A fair number of solid professional, skilled and semi skilled with a large dose of run of mill providing high volume low margin repeatable work (even their consultancy section). The "brilliant" ones work for the oil companies where capital is effectively employed. Engineering service contractor come and go - grow , go bust or get taken over , decline etc Cycle starts over

"Your top up's speaks volumes " and post of others "I've also heard this from folks at WG today, apparently offer price is between £1.30 and £1.45"

and I saw Elvis down the chip shop

SanjaiN - thanks i assume that you have multiplied the 50m by 6 to get your 300m. IMO that doesn't seem conservative as surplus can't be assumed each year but if people want to use it to get a value, its up to them. I am not sure how the pensions Trustees will react to takeover talks - for instance LCP a pension advisor quotes " Trustees will use more cautious assumptions if the strength of the sponsoring employer (employer covenant) supporting the scheme is weak. This means that if, for example, an M&A transaction weakens the support provided to the pension scheme, the trustees are required to take a more prudent approach, potentially reducing, or eliminating any surplus (or increasing a deficit) and increasing contribution requirements."

Pensions are a complicated issue.

On lighter note I was sent this

Minister: Humphrey, we going to encourage firms to access their pension fund surplus to generate growth?

Humphrey: Oh yes Minister that seems a good idea worth considering

Minister: Really, you often seem to be cautious on these ideas

Humphrey: Oh not really Minister I just like to be prudent

Bernard: What about the pensioners?

Humphrey: It will benefit pensioners, stronger companies, economy and all that etc

Minister: Fine, then we’ll push forward with it

Humphrey (to himself):Oh good - Civil service final pensions will better protected with the extra tax revenue from the 25% tax levied on return of pensions surplus. Not so sure about the company pensioners when things change for the worse and the company can’t make up the deficit

Where do you get £300 million in pension fund

" he can walk in, see what a **** show it is and say “actually, the best thing here is to get the best offer from a new owner”. to do that, you'd want to"

4. Tell the CEO to open his desk drawer and open the 3rd letter ( as in the classic joke)

Agree getting near last chance to buy to make a good profit

"113 posts on a weekend and not 1 person knows what's going on lol "

and that includes the CEO and BOD of Wood Group!!

"Massive rise in open. Perhaps an early RNS is needed to keep down the speculation."

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