Wood Group strikes £9m deal for Canadian engineer

OIL and gas services specialist Wood Group has snapped up a Canadian engineering consultant in a deal valued at $14.3 million (£9.1m).

The Aberdeen-based group said the purchase of Beta Machinery Analysis would strengthen its capabilities in the testing and inspection of piping systems and machinery.

Calgary-based Beta, which employs about 100 people, specialises in vibration analysis and will become part of Wood Group’s Kenny division.

Bob Macdonald, chief executive of the Kenny operation, said: “Wood Group and Beta are an excellent fit both operationally and culturally, fostered from a partnership from past project experience.”

Beta will continue to be led by its existing management team under president Russ Barss, who said: “With the support and strength of Wood Group, we can provide an enhanced global breadth of service to our customers. We are well aligned culturally, and our values are one and the same where safety, quality and integrity are major priorities.”

Wood Group is due to report its first-half results on 18 August and last week said it was seeking to cut costs “significantly in excess” of previous targets in response to “challenging” conditions in the oil and gas sector.

The firm, which employs about 12,000 people in the UK, has already cut rates for contractors and frozen employees’ salaries as it faces a downturn in North Sea activity.

Although Wood Group said that its figures for the first six months of the year would demonstrate its “resilience”, they will be down on the same period last year. However, it insisted that full-year underlying earnings would be broadly in line with City forecasts of about $469 million (£298m).