Wood Group (J) Regulatory News (WG.)

7th November 2019

John Wood Group plc

 Capital Markets Presentation and Trading Update

John Wood Group PLC ("Wood") is hosting a Capital Markets Presentation for analysts and investors today. The presentation will provide an insight into Wood's strategic objectives over the medium term, looking at the macro trends and key growth drivers in the markets that will shape the business.

Robin Watson, Chief Executive, will present on Wood's strategy and positioning, including the formation of Technical Consulting Solutions ("TCS") which brings together the capabilities of Specialist Technical Solutions ("STS") and Environment and Infrastructure Solutions ("E&IS"). David Kemp, Group CFO, will provide an overview of Wood's financial strategy for value creation in the medium term.

Wood today also confirms that the full year outlook for 2019 EBITDA remains broadly in line with consensus, despite the impact on activity of a slowing macro environment. Financial performance is benefitting from proactive cost reduction measures including accelerated synergy delivery from the formation of TCS. In line with trading, our expectations on cashflow are broadly unchanged. The agreed sale of our nuclear business for c$305m is progressing as expected towards completion which is anticipated in Q1 2020 and will accelerate progress to target leverage.

Asset Solutions EAAA ("AS EAAA") has continued to perform strongly particularly in Operations Solutions Middle East, Caspian and Asia Pacific and Capital Projects, albeit with reduced low margin procurement activity.

Asset Solutions Americas ("ASA") is benefitting from increased downstream & chemicals activity although shale activity has slowed. Project challenges in Process and Energy are being partly offset by the benefit of successful close out on certain contracts.

Activity and margins in E&IS remain relatively robust. In STS, activity and margins are lower than anticipated principally due to lower volumes in Automation.

Commenting on the Capital Markets Presentation, Robin Watson, Chief Executive, said: "We are looking forward to sharing our strategic plans to create a higher margin project management, operations and consulting business. We are confident Wood is well positioned to unlock growth opportunities from the emerging trends in our energy and built environment markets."

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Note to Editors:

Wood is a global leader in the delivery of project management, engineering, consulting and technical services to energy and built environment customers. We operate in more than 60 countries, employing around 60,000 people, with revenues of around $10 billion. www.woodplc.com 

The Capital Markets Day will commence at 8.30am and a live webcast of the presentation will be available from https://www.woodplc.com/investors/financial-events-calendar. Replay facilities will be available later in the day.