Aberdeen-based Wood plc, the global engineering and consulting company, said on Monday it completed the sale of its nuclear business to Jacobs for £250 million in cash.

“The cash proceeds from the nuclear divestment and the recent sale of Wood’s industrial services business generated a total of $429m,” said Wood in a stock exchange statement.

“These moves form part of Wood’s ongoing portfolio optimisation focus and will also enable the company to reduce debt and accelerate progress towards its target leverage policy.”

Wood’s chief financial officer David Kemp said: “Future portfolio optimisation will continue to be driven by our strategic objective of building a premium, differentiated, higher margin business focused on energy and built environment end markets. 

“The sale of our nuclear business and other recent divestments have also enabled us to accelerate progress towards our leverage target.” 

Wood operates in more than 60 countries, employing around 60,000 people, with revenues of over $10 billion.