The story of the John Wood Group stock is, frankly, a bit of a mess. If you’ve been watching the tickers lately, you’ve seen the numbers: 26.36p as of mid-January 2026. That is a brutal 60% drop over the last year. It’s the kind of chart that makes seasoned investors wince and contrarians start licking their chops. But here’s the thing—most people are looking at the price and missing the massive, looming "Sold" sign hanging over the front door.
Basically, the company is in the middle of being swallowed whole. After a 2024 that could only be described as an "annus horribilis," Wood Group found itself backed into a corner. They had no sustainable free cash flow since 2017. Imagine that. Nearly a decade of running a global engineering giant and not actually tucking any real cash away. By the time 2025 rolled around, the board basically admitted their capital structure was "unsustainable." That's corporate-speak for "we’re broke and need a rescue."
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What’s Actually Happening with the Sidara Takeover?
In late 2025, the shareholders finally said "enough." They overwhelmingly approved a cash acquisition by Sidara, a massive Dubai-based engineering collective. About 89% of the votes were in favor. Honestly, it wasn't a hard choice for them. When your stock is cratering and someone offers you a guaranteed exit, you take it.
The deal is expected to cross the finish line in the first half of 2026. This is why the john wood group stock is behaving so strangely. It’s no longer trading on pure "growth" or "value" metrics in the traditional sense. It’s trading on the probability and timing of this deal closing. Sidara is basically buying its way into the energy and materials sector, planning to use Wood as its primary engine for that work.
But it hasn't been a smooth ride. Remember Apollo Global Management? They tried to buy Wood four different times in 2023. They eventually walked away because they thought the board was being too difficult. Then came the audit nightmare. The company actually had its shares suspended from the London Stock Exchange for a while because they couldn't get their 2024 accounts finished on time. When the reports finally dropped in November 2025, the auditors—KPMG—included a "disclaimer of opinion." In the accounting world, that’s a red alert. It means the auditors couldn't find enough evidence to verify the losses.
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The Energy Transition Gamble
You've probably heard that Wood is "repositioning." They’ve been trying to move away from pure oil and gas services toward "low-carbon solutions." We’re talking:
- Hydrogen pipelines in North America (over 2,000 miles of them).
- Carbon capture projects.
- Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) partnerships with companies like Honeywell.
- Blue and green ammonia plants in Abu Dhabi and Norway.
It sounds great on a PowerPoint slide. The problem is that transition is expensive. Wood spent years weighed down by "legacy" contracts—old deals that ended up costing them way more than they made. They also had to pay out massive amounts for old litigation and regulatory fines. It’s like trying to run a marathon while wearing a backpack full of bricks.
The Sidara deal brings $450 million in immediate funding to the table. That’s the oxygen the company needs to stay alive while it tries to finish this pivot. Without it, the "going concern" warnings in their financial statements suggest they might not have made it through 2026 at all.
The Financial Reality Check
Let's talk numbers, but keep it simple. As of January 16, 2026, the market cap sits around £180 million. To give you some perspective, back in 2023, there were talks of valuations over £1.6 billion. That is a staggering evaporation of wealth.
Current analyst sentiment is... cautious. Most have a "Hold" or "Neutral" rating. Why? Because there’s no upside beyond the acquisition price. If the deal fails for some unforeseen regulatory reason, the floor could fall out. If it succeeds, you get your cash and move on.
- Year High: 72.60p
- Year Low: 16.92p
- Net Debt: Around $1.6 billion (this is the real killer).
The debt is the reason the valuation dropped so low. Sidara isn't just buying the company; they're taking on the massive burden of those loans. For a retail investor, buying john wood group stock right now is essentially a bet on the merger's completion.
The "Red Flags" Nobody Mentioned
There were some weird moments that didn't help investor confidence. For instance, the Chief Financial Officer, Arvind Balan, resigned in 2025 after it came out that he had "mis-stated" his professional qualifications. You can't make this stuff up. When the person in charge of the money has a CV issue during a financial crisis, investors tend to run for the hills.
Then there’s the Deloitte review. The company commissioned an independent look at their books after a massive £745 million loss in the first half of 2025. It revealed that many of their large-scale projects were written down significantly. Basically, they realized they weren't going to make nearly as much money as they’d told everyone.
Is It Still a Buy?
If you’re looking for a long-term "moonshot," this isn't it. The company is being delisted once the Sidara deal closes. The game here is arbitrage—the gap between the current trading price and the final payout price.
However, the risks are real. The "disclaimer of opinion" from auditors is a major hurdle for any bank or regulator involved in the final sign-off. If Sidara finds something in the final "due diligence" that they don't like, they could theoretically try to lower the price or walk away, though that's less likely now that the shareholder vote is in.
Your Next Moves
If you are currently holding john wood group stock or thinking about jumping in for a quick merger play, here is what you need to track:
- Court Sanction Date: Watch for the official RNS (Regulatory News Service) announcement regarding the "Sanction Hearing." This is the final legal rubber stamp.
- Regulatory Hurdles: The deal still needs some antitrust clearances in specific jurisdictions. Any delay here will cause the stock price to wobble.
- Liquidity Updates: Wood is surviving on interim funding right now. If there’s any news about their debt facilities being pulled, the deal could be in jeopardy.
Basically, the era of Wood Group as a major independent UK PLC is ending. It’s a cautionary tale about taking on too much debt to fund acquisitions (like their 2017 purchase of Amec Foster Wheeler) and failing to manage the "messy" transition to new energy markets quickly enough.
Keep an eye on the official London Stock Exchange filings for the "Scheme of Arrangement" updates. That's where the real story will end.