Half Year 2024 John Wood Group PLC Earnings Call Transcript
Key Points
- John Wood Group Plc (WDGJF) reported an 8.5% increase in adjusted EBITDA and expanded EBITDA margins to 7.7%.
- The company has a higher order book, up 4%, and is winning work at consistently higher gross margins.
- The simplification program is on track to deliver $60 million in savings by 2025.
- Employee engagement has significantly improved, with the company now in the top quartile for employee commitment.
- The company has made strategic decisions to simplify and align its portfolio, including the disposal of non-core businesses like CEC Controls.
- The company has downgraded its cash guidance four times since November last year.
- There are still significant challenges in improving working capital management.
- The company has taken a $140 million EPC write-off and an $815 million goodwill impairment.
- Revenue in the projects segment was down 13%, reflecting a shift away from lump-sum turnkey and lower pass-through activity.
- The consulting order book was down 8%, reflecting delayed client decisions on larger programs.
Good morning, and welcome to our half year 2024 results presentation where we're joining you today from London for this virtual event. I'm Ken Gilmartin, CEO of Wood, and I'm pleased to host you as we share our latest results.
Today, I'm joined by Arvind Balan for his first results presentation as Wood's new CFO; and Jennifer Richmond, Woods, Chief Strategy Officer. So to our agenda for this morning, I will take you through the progress we have made in delivering the strategy we launched 18 months ago.
Arvind will then talk about his reflections as our new CFO and detailed the steps that he is taking to ensure a strong cash focus through the business before turning to our half year results. Jennifer will then share insights into the higher quality business that we're building.
And finally, I'll close with my view of why Wood is a fundamentally better business with a strong investment case, and we'll then move to take your questions.
So our standard disclaimer here for the record. So let
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