Tetra Tech buying consultant for £43m

douglas mccormick index

The takeover of WYG by US rival Tetra Tech is due to be approved by the courts later today after shareholders overwhelmingly voted in favour of the £43m deal.

A hearing at the business and property courts of the High Court is set to rubber-stamp the move which will be formally confirmed next Tuesday.

Last week 99.99% of shareholders voted for the deal which was first announced in May.

California-based Tetra Tech, which is listed on the US stock exchange and is worth $3.7bn, said it expected to make a “modest” amount of cutbacks among WYG’s 1,600 staff which it said “will predominantly come from back-office overhead support and corporate management activities”.

When details of the bid first emerged, WYG directors, led by chief executive Douglas McCormick (pictured), said they were recommending the offer because it would have taken 18 months for an ongoing restructure to have any impact.

Last month WYG said in its last of results as a listed business that it had stayed firmly in the red for the year to March 2019, although pre-tax losses narrowed from £5.4m to £4.6m. Turnover was up 2% to £157m.

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