More than £250m was wiped off the value of John Wood Group after accountants found “material weaknesses and failures” in the North Sea engineering giant’s governance and financial practices.
The British company’s shares tanked by more than 45pc on Friday as bosses revealed the company now expected negative cashflow of up to $200m (£159m) this year, after previously telling investors it would be positive.
After a bruising day of trading, the London-listed business, which offers outsourcing services to major North Sea producers, was left with a market cap of just £209m.
It came after early findings from a review of the struggling business, conducted by consultants at Deloitte, suggested profits from the group’s projects division may have been overstated in 2023 and prior years.
Undoubtedly Spud will tell us that this shows that accountants aren’t to be trusted and therefore he should be put in charge. Except, if accountants aren;t to be trusted why would we put a retired one in charge?
The post Beancounters, eh? first appeared on Tim Worstall.