Worley gig

17 October 2019 By Clara Ferreira Marques, Sharon Lam Follow @sharonlamhk

A $5 bln oil services company wants the foreign-investment watchdog to stop a Middle Eastern investor from raising its stake. It’s an odd defence. Rules that let suitors creep up on their targets may have pushed WorleyParsons into a corner, but it sets an uncomfortable precedent.

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Australian industrial engineering company WorleyParsons said on Oct. 16 that it had informed the country’s Foreign Investment Review Board of “creeping acquisitions” by its biggest shareholder, Dar Group.

The Worley board said it was not in shareholders’ interests for Dar to further increase its shareholding through this mechanism or for Worley to enter into a business cooperation agreement with Dar.

WorleyParsons rejected a A$2.9 billion ($2.2 billion) full takeover bid from Dar Group in 2016.

Dar held 25.9% of WorleyParsons in August 2018, including a cash-settled equity swap. As of April 2019, that was diluted to 22.9%.

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