John Wood Group has seen its revenue drop in the first quarter of the year by 6% year-on-year to $1.46bn (£1.17bn).

The financial report comes after the engineering firm rejected a takeover bid from Dubai-based firm, Sidara, for £1.4bn yesterday.

Analysts have stated that following this announcement, share prices at John Wood Group increased by 16%.

The company's board saidit had considered the proposal but concluded that it "fundamentally undervalued Wood and its future prospects".

Despite the year-on-year revenue drop, the firm reported that its order book, as of 31 March, had increased by 9% in the same period, reaching $6.2bn (£4.96bn).

Operations revenue also increased by 5% to $624m (£500m), with the group stating that this had been driven by higher activity levels across Europe and the Middle East.

Chief executive officer at John Wood Group, Ken Gilmartin, said: "We are now in the second year of our growth strategy and are making good progress, with EBITDA growth, margin expansion and an order book 9% higher than a year ago. We continue to win exciting and complex work across energy and materials, with sustainable solutions representing 40% of our pipeline.

"We are progressing with our simplification programme and have made some significant appointments this year including welcoming Arvind Balan as our new CFO. I am proud of the strong leadership team we have in place and confident that we will deliver on our significant potential. We are today reiterating our EBITDA guidance for 2024 and our outlook for 2025."

Looking forward, John Wood Group said that its financial performance will be weighted on the second half of the year, which is the typical seasonality of its business.

Its net debt is expected to be at similar levels to that of the previous financial, and it has stated that it believes that its EBITDA growth in 2025 will exceed its medium-term target.

Head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, Danni Hewson, added: "Setting the pace on the FTSE 250, engineering services company John Wood Group saw shares surge more than 16% on the news that it’s once again come to the attention of a would-be suitor.

"The fact the offer from Dubai-based Sidara ‘fundamentally undervalued’ the company and was summarily rejected will only pour more fuel on speculation that the business may not hang around London markets for long either.

"Activist investors have been pushing for change and the share price moves today suggest investors expect Sidara could sweeten the pot, or former suitor Apollo might take another look."

---