Wood Group shares closed slightly higher after trading resumed following a five-month suspension to enable a review of its accounts to be completed.

After surging by as much as 38% on their previous close, they ended the session 9.9% higher at 20p.

This was below the 30p offer price from Dubai-based Sidara which will be voted on by shareholders on 17 November or soon afterwards.

The accounts were delayed following the publication of an independent review by Deloitte which found “material weaknesses and failures in the group’s financial culture within the projects business unit and engagement between group finance and projects.”

The Financial Conduct Authority launched an investigation into the company in June, covering the period from 1 January 2023 to 7 November 2024.

As a condition of Sidara’s offer, valuing the company at £216 million, Wood was required to publish the accounts for 2024 by 31 October.

Those accounts show that in for the 2024 year it made a loss from continuing operations of $2.76 billion before tax, compared with a restated loss of $151.9m for the year before. This primarily reflects an impairment of goodwill and intangibles of $2.2 billion and exceptional charges of $425m.

Results for the half year to the end of June 2025 showed EBIT fell 38% to $63 million compared to the same period last year, reflecting a 13.3% decline in revenue to $2.4 billion and the impact of business disposals.

Despite these challenges, the company’s order book grew to $6.5bn, up 6% year-on-year and 12% from December 2024, indicating continued client confidence in Wood’s technical capabilities.

Wood has not generated any sustainable free cash flow since 2017, with a total free cash outflow from 2017 to 2024 of approximately $1.5 billion, reflecting multiple issues including regulatory fines, significant loss-making contracts, restructuring charges and litigation payments

More recently, the significant unwind of working capital as the business moved away from large-scale lump sum turnkey work, and the persistence of multiple exceptional cash items, have prevented Wood from becoming free cash flow positive as previously expected.