Is big better? Oil services provider Wood Group certainly thought so when it pounced on Amec Foster Wheeler, a £2.2bn takeover that completed last week.
The all-share deal was an opportunistic one, struck in March when the engineer was at a low ebb and about to do a £500m rights issue to patch up its balance sheet. It had long been on the cards, but until a few years ago, you would have bet that Amec would be the acquirer.
Wood wanted to reduce its reliance on the oil and gas sector, where low prices have slashed margins. By buying Amec, Wood would be able to branch out into other areas of engineering, such as nuclear, where it otherwise faced a long slog to achieve