SNC-Lavalin Group slashed its dividend by 65 per cent Friday as it reported a fourth-quarter loss of $1.6 billion. The troubled engineering and construction company says it will now pay a quarterly dividend of 10 cents per share compared with its earlier payment of 28.7 cents per share.
SNC has been at the centre of a political scandal in Ottawa over the company’s desire to negotiate a deferred prosecution agreement in connection with fraud and bribery charges related to its dealings with the regime of late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
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The company also issued two profit warnings earlier this year related to challenges at a mining project and its oil and gas business.
The company’s loss for its fourth quarter amounted to $9.11 per diluted share. That compared with a profit of $52.4 million or 30 cents per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2017.
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Revenue totalled $2.56 billion, down from $2.92 billion. On an adjusted basis, SNC reported a loss of $1.31 per diluted share compared with an adjusted profit of 98 cents per diluted share a year ago.
Analysts on average had expected a loss of $1.19 per diluted share, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.
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