´óÏó´«Ã½

The family and charities of former Wood Group chairman Sir Ian Wood have sold shares in the firm worth about £127m.

More than 16.3 million shares were sold at 775p each on behalf of the Wood Family Trust, the Sir Ian Clark Wood's 1997 Discretionary Trust and members of the Wood family.

The sale represented about 4.4% of the company's issued share capital.

Sir Ian, who recently retired as chairman of the group, did not sell any of his 2.4% holding in the company.

Credit Suisse and J.P. Morgan Cazenove, who handled the sale, said Sir Ian had "no current intention to sell or transfer any of his Wood Group shares".

Last year the Wood family and charitable trusts sold more than £366m worth of shares in the oil and gas services company, in order to diversify their investment portfolios.

The sell-off was part of a buy-back of shares by Wood Group, following its sale of its well support division to GE for £1.7bn.

Sir Ian retired in October after decades at the helm of the company.

He served as chairman of the group from 1982 and was its chief executive from 1967 to 2006.