Deal ends nearly 60 years of independence
The takeover of WYG by US rival Tetra Tech has been completed, ending nearly 60 years of independence.
In a notice posted on the London Stock Exchange this afternoon, WYG said trading in its shares had been suspended on Tuesday morning.
The firm was started in Leeds in 1960 by Ernest Green later merging with White Young, set up four years later by Terence White and Ron Young, before eventually rebranding as WYG in 2008.
Last month, shareholders overwhelmingly voted in favour of Tetra Tech’s £43m offer ahead of the High Court officially rubber-stamping the move last week.
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”.
Tetra Tech chief executive Dan Batrack said: “The addition of WYG advances our strategy to be the premier global high-end consulting, engineering, and program management firm.”
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.
In one of its last updates as a listed firm, WYG said Tetra Tech senior vice-president for corporate administration Richard Lemmon and the president of its commercial account management division Derek Amidon have been appointed to the WYG board.
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