John Wood Group has seen its operating costs fall from a profit of $23m (£17.7m) to a loss of $899m (£691m) in the first half of the 2023 and 2024 financial years respectively.

The $983m (£755.2m) loss comes as an exceptional charge after the British engineering firm turned down a £1.59bn takeover bid from Sidara, leading the potential buyer to walk away from the deal earlier this month, citing "geopolitical risks and financial market uncertainty".

Furthermore, in the six months to 30 June, the group’s revenue fell by 4.8% to $2.84bn (£2.18bn) basic loss per share dropped from 4.3 cent (3.3 pence) in 2023 to 142.9 cent (109.8 pence) per share in 2024.

Despite these losses, John Wood Group’s order book increased by 3.6% to $6.21bn (£4.77bn), while its adjusted EBIT increased by 14.2% to $102m (£78.36m).

Chief executive officer at John Wood Group, Ken Gilmartin, said: "These results demonstrate continued progress on our turnaround. Our strategy continues to deliver higher EBITDA and a larger order book, and we are improving the quality of our business with better pricing and higher margins.

"Our simplification programme is progressing at pace, with nearly half of the annualised $60m (£46.1m) savings from next year already secured. I am also pleased that we have achieved all of this while recording our highest level of employee satisfaction ever, putting Wood in the top quartile of all our peers and demonstrating that our team is focused and energised on driving Wood to its full potential."

Looking ahead, John Wood Group said it expects to record high single digit growth in adjusted EBITDA before the impact of disposals, while its full-year performance for 2024 will be weighted to the second half, "reflecting the typical seasonality" of the business.

It added that for the 2025 financial year, its adjusted EBITDA growth is expected to be above its medium-term targets, with $60m from the simplification programme adding to the mid to high single digit growth forecast.

John Wood Group also stated that it expects to generate "significant free cash flow" in 2025.

Gilmartin added: "Generating sustainable, strong free cash flow continues to be an important focus for the delivery of our turnaround. Our adjusted operating cash flow was up in the period, and we continue to anticipate reducing cash drags going forward. We welcomed Arvind Balan as our new CFO in April and he has brought a renewed cash focus across the business.

"As we look ahead, we remain confident that our strategy, actions we are taking and growth potential across our markets will deliver significant value for our shareholders. We are pleased to reconfirm our outlook today, both for 2024 and 2025, including generating significant free cash flow in 2025."

---