WOOD Group chief executive Robin Watson was adamant that the £2.2 billion takeover of the Amec Foster Wheeler engineering group it announced yesterday was about growth and not just cost cutting.
Mr Watson reckons the enlarged group will end up creating jobs as it capitalises on the opportunities to win new business that will be created by combining the two firms’ expertise.
The enlarged group will have big international operations working in areas from helping to develop oil and gas fields to designing nuclear reactors.
But he was frank that jobs will be lost under plans to squeeze £110 million annual costs out of the enlarged business. The fear must be that the companies’ Aberdeen and North Sea operations will have to bear a heavy share of the resulting pain.
Wood identified the closure of overlapping offices and the removal of duplication from back office functions as ways to save money.
Mr Watson also noted employment levels in Aberdeen are related to activity levels in the North Sea, where Wood and AFW have said conditions remain challenging.
Shell’s £37 billion takeover of BG has set a precedent that some people may find worrying. It was followed by the closure of BG’s office in Aberdeen and hefty job losses in the Granite City.
Some may take comfort from the thought the takeover may allow the enlarged Wood Group to use its muscle to get better terms from oil and gas clients.
It may also reduce the chance of the group falling prey itself to a bid.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel