Wood Group H1 revenues and EBITDA down double digits

Engineering and consulting business John Wood Group said on Thursday that revenues and underlying earnings had both slumped double digits in the first half as a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Wood stated like-for-like revenues were down 21% to roughly $3.2bn in the six months ending 30 June, with robust consulting activity and relative resilience in its operations unit partly offsetting lower activity in the group's projects division.

Adjusted underlying earnings were pegged to be $255.0m-265.0m, down roughly 12% on the first half of 2020 on a like-for-like basis, while operating profits before exceptionals will be around $85.0m-95.0m.

On the other hand, Wood's order book at the end of May was up roughly 6% on its December figure at $6.9bn, with the group confident of a stronger second half and EBITDA margin improvement.

Chief executive Robin Watson said: "Following a steady start in Q1, we have seen improving momentum in activity in Q2 with growth in consulting and operations compared to Q2 2020.

"Our full-year outlook is unchanged with trading momentum and growth in our order book, which is up circa 6% year-to-date driven by consulting and operations, giving us confidence that the group will return to growth in the second half, compared to both H1 2021 and H2 2020. In line with our strategic objective we anticipate growth in EBITDA margin."

As of 0830 BST, Wood Group shares were down 2.49% at 223.30p.