Wood chair Franklin to leave embattled Wood Group – Daily Business

Wood Group’s chairman will be leaving the troubled engineering company along with three other directors.

Roy Franklin, who has led the board since September 2019, will stand for re-election but intends to step down from the board as soon as there is greater clarity regarding Wood’s future direction.

Non-executive directors David Lockwood and Catherine Michel are leaving by mutual agreement in light of time commitments required by the company’s current position. Sue Steele is retirirng.

The size and composition of the board, including the balance of skills, continues to be assessed to ensure it meets Wood’s requirements.

The Aberdeen-based company announced that it will hold its annual general meeting on 18 June even though its delayed year-end results are not yet fully audited.

A draft review of a report by Deloitte into the company’s corporate governance was published in March. It found material weaknesses in Wood’s financial reporting, which included withholding and misrepresenting information. This is likely to result in Wood’s figures in previous years being restated.

The board says the review is now complete with no additional factual findings, but given its complexity more extensive work has been required to complete the latest accounts.

Wood is implementing a plan to respond to issues raised in the review and is continuing to work with its auditor on the FY24 accounts.

However, they will not be ready to lay before shareholders before 30 June and the company will hold the AGM in order to meet its legal requirement.

Trading in its shares are currently suspended but once the accounts are available Wood will request a restoration of the listing and a resumption of trading in its shares. A further shareholder meeting will be held when those accounts will be laid.

Wood is continuing to work with Dubai-based Sidara on a proposed 35p per share cash offer for the company,

The Takeover Panel has agreed that Sidara will be given until by 5pm on 12 June to make its intentions clear.