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John Wood Group PLC on Wednesday reported a drop in revenue for 2021, on reduced revenue in its Projects segment but a narrowed loss on lower charges.
The Aberdeen-based engineering and consulting firm also said Chief Executive Robin Watson will step down. It has kicked off a process to name a replacement.
John Wood recorded a pretax loss of $80.6 million in 2021, narrowed from $148.6 million in 2020. This is due to an exceptional items charge that fell 35% to $159.7 million from $247.3 million.
The narrowed loss came despite revenue declining. Revenue fell 15% to $6.40 billion to $7.56 billion.
John Wood blamed this on a significant decline in revenue from its Projects segment.
Revenue in Projects fell 34% to $2.34 billion from $3.57 billion.
‘The decline in the year reflects the completion of some larger [engineering, procurement and construction] contracts, our move away from larger scale contracts and new work being limited to smaller scopes such as early-stage work,’ the FTSE 250 firm explained.
John Wood noted that it still recorded revenue growth in its Consulting and Operations divisions.
Supporting the ‘strong’ growth in both divisions, John Wood's order book grew 19% to $7.75 billion from $6.52 billion.
The firm expects higher revenue across its business going forward, supported by its healthy order book.
It also reiterated its plans to sell its built-environment unit within Consulting.
In January, the company said that a review had concluded that a full sale process was the best option to deliver value for shareholders and that the process is now underway. A sales agreement is expected to be announced in the second quarter. It also noted that it expects a sale to have a ‘significant’ impact on its reported results.
John Wood said that it took the decision to exit Russia and has begun the process of withdrawing from operations in the country. The operations accounted for 1% of its revenue in 2021, it added.
Separately, John Wood revealed that its CEO Watson intends to retire.
John Wood has initiated the process to appoint a replacement and Robin will remain in his role until one is in place.
Shares were down 1.1% at 190.30 pence each on Wednesday morning in London.
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