the times | Wednesday February 23 2022 43
Business
John Wood Group is delaying the publi-
cation of its annual results after taking
a fresh $100 million charge on a long-
running defence project.
The issue at the engineering and con-
sulting group arose during a review of
the carrying value of contracts, part of
preparations for the end of its fiscal
year. The charge relates to work on
Aegis Poland, which Wood inherited as
part of its £2.2 billion takeover of rival
Amec Foster Wheeler in 2017.
The agreement involves the con-
struction of buildings in Redzikowo,
Poland, due to house an Aegis Ashore
anti-missile defence facility for the
United States army.
Higher costs mean the loss on the
completion of the contract is now esti-
mated to be $222 million, compared to
a previous forecast of $133 million.
$100m hit for Wood Group
over Polish missile project
An external investigation and review is
taking place into the historical carrying
value of the project, meaning that
Wood’s auditor, KPMG, cannot com-
plete its work. This “will necessitate a
delay to the announcement of Wood’s
full-year 2021 results”, which were due
to be published on March 8.
That sent shares in the FTSE 250
engineering consultancy down 36½p,
or 16 per cent, to 188¾p.
Analysts at Panmure Gordon said:
“While $100 million isn’t huge in terms
of the impact on expected perform-
ance, the optics around the sudden
delay to results are not good.”
Jefferies suggested that Wood has
reported more than $870 million of
exceptional charges since 2015.
Aberdeen-based Wood has about
40,000 employees around the world. Its
Polish contract is expected to be com-
pleted in the second half of the year.Greig Cameron
JOHN CAIRNS/UNIVERSITY OF OXFORDT
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SSSSign up
Tilast year. AstraZeneca is one of the
UK’s biggest companies and claims
to have saved about a million lives
with its Covid jabs.
The company said: “Mr
Johansson was first elected to the
board in April 2012 and reached
nine years’ tenure as a director in
April 2021. Last year, the board
asked him to seek re-election at the
2021 AGM to lead the board’s
oversight of completion of the
acquisition of Alexion.
“Again this year, the board
believes it would be in the best
interests of shareholders for Mr
Johansson to seek re-election at the
AGM in April 2022 and continue to
serve as chair for one further year,
to facilitate succession planning
and the transition to a new chair.”are supposed to serve under
corporate governance guidelines.
However, the company said that the
board asked Johansson, 70, to stay
another year in 2021 to oversee the
$39 billion acquisition of Alexion
and was asking again this year to
“facilitate succession planning and
the transition to a new chair”.
Astra made the announcement as
it revealed the latest pay details for
its directors: the chief executive
Pascal Soriot was paid £13.8 million
in 2021 on top of the £15.9 million
he received in 2020.
They also revealed that its
finance director Aradhana Sarin
has become one of corporate
Britain’s best-paid female
executives, receiving £3 million for
the five months she was in place