HUNDREDS of workers face potential job misery in a £2.2bn engineering firm takeover.

Engineer Amec Foster Wheeler, one of Darlington’s largest private employers, has been targeted by rival Wood Group.

Bosses say the move will deliver “significant cost and revenue synergies” of at least £110m a year, with a third of savings expected to come from office closures and cuts to duplicate IT systems and central support services.

A spokesman for Wood Group, which manages operations at the Central Area Transmission System gas terminal, in Seal Sands, near Billingham, said it couldn’t comment on potential job losses, while Amec failed to respond.

Amec’s Darlington site, on the town’s Lingfield Point, operates as its European engineering base and employs upwards of 1,000 people across technical and back office roles.

The agreement, which shareholders will vote on later this year, comes just weeks after The Northern Echo revealed up to 45 Amec posts were at risk of being moved from Darlington to India in a restructure aimed at reducing the business’ £1bn debt pile.

Amec, which has a further office in Newcastle, expanded in 2014 when it took on Foster Wheeler to target greater oil and gas work but has suffered from the fall in oil prices and associated weakness in the offshore sector.

Latest results, released on Monday, show those difficulties have prevailed, with trading profit down from £374m in 2015 to £318m last year, though officials say a number of new contracts, which provide welcome confidence, have yet to be fully absorbed into its financial sheet.

John Connolly, Amec Foster Wheeler chairman, said Wood Group’s offer gives the business scope to continue reversing its fortunes, adding the company will retain a strong presence on the new organisation’s board.

He said: “Since the arrival of Jonathan Lewis as chief executive, management has made significant progress towards the transformation of the business.

“This has been achieved through cost reduction, the disposal of non-core assets and a re-organisation of the business.

“However, the board believes a combination with Wood adds to the standalone prospects of the company and helps to realise the full potential of Amec Foster Wheeler and Wood.”

Ian Marchant, chairman of Wood Group, which previously took on Gateshead coatings company Pyeroy, echoed the deal’s potential, saying the enlarged company will be more nimble across the energy sector.

He added: “The combination represents a transformational transaction, extends the scale and scope of our services and deepens our existing customer relationships.

“It will create a business of greater scale and enhanced capability, diversified across the oil and gas, chemicals, renewables, environment and infrastructure and mining segments.

“The group will be able to better capitalise on growth opportunities across a broad cross section of energy and industrial end markets.”