John Wood reaches settlement in Enterprise suit

Engineering services company John Wood Group has reached a settlement agreement with Enterprise Products Operating following the conclusion of a legacy lawsuit against its Amec Foster Wheeler subsidiary earlier in the year.

John Wood said on Monday that it will pay $115.0m to Enterprise, which will be paid in one installment within the next seven days.

The FTSE 250-listed group noted that the settlement comes as a result of a 2016 filing against Amec Foster Wheeler, a company Wood acquired in 2017, and one of its subsidiaries. It related to alleged cost increases and delays on a cost reimbursable plus fixed fee contract secured in 2013 to engineer, procure and construct a propane dehydrogenation unit in Mont Belvieu, Texas.

John Wood now expects net debt to be roughly in the middle of its target range of 0.5x to 1.5x net debt to EBITDA on 31 December, including the payment of the settlement and its planned decision to use part of the proceeds of its Built Environment sale to normalise working capital.

As of 0835 GMT, John Wood shares were down 0.85% at 157.65p.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com