Ian Wood In £20m Pledge To Charities After £135m Shares Sale
One of Scotland’s best-known oil industry entrepreneurs promised a £20m bonanza for charity after he and relatives netted £135m by selling shares in the company that he chairs.
Sir Ian Wood plans to help good causes in the UK and overseas with a share of the proceeds of a huge sale of shares in John Wood Group, the oil services company, which was completed yesterday.
The 64-year-old Aberdeen businessman and other members of his family and related trusts sold 50 million shares in the stock market-listed Wood Group at 270p each.
Sir Ian, married with three sons, declined to say how the bulk of the proceeds would be divided or name any beneficiaries. However, he confirmed that £20m would eventually be used to support unnamed charities in the UK and overseas by a new body called the Sir Ian Wood Family Charitable Foundation. Further details of the foundation’s plans will be revealed at a formal launch later this spring.
The share sale comes three weeks after Wood Group announced record profits of $215m (£109m) for 2006 following a sharp increase in oil and gas activity around the world, fuelled by strong energy prices.
The success came in Sir Ian’s last year as chief executive of a company which he ran for 42 years. During that time he transformed the small fishing business he inherited from his father into a major player in the market to support oil and gas companies across the world.
The decision to set up a philanthropic organisation follows similar moves by a number of successful Scottish entrepreneurs who have entered the ranks of the super-rich.
Sir Tom Hunter, the Ayrshire businessman who amassed a retail and property empire valued at around £850m, has become the best-known champion of the new philanthropy. He used £100m to establish a foundation to encourage enterprise among young people.
Following yesterday’s share sale, Sir Ian Wood and other family members and trusts retained a holding valued at around £337m and representing 24% of Wood Group.
