Canada engineering giant in legal, political throes posts big losses

SNC-Lavalin, the engineering and construction giant at the center of a legal and political storm that has rocked Canada's Liberal government, posted a Canadian Dollar 1.6 billion quarterly loss Friday.

The Montreal-based firm wrote down significant oil and gas assets and warned that its business prospects in Saudi Arabia, where it has major engineering contracts, were worsening because of a diplomatic row between Ottawa and Riyadh.

The kingdom expelled Canada's ambassador and severed trade and investment ties with Ottawa in August over its rights criticisms of Saudi Arabia.

More recently, SNC-Lavalin has become the focus of allegations that undue pressure was put on a former attorney general by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office to try to settle criminal charges against the company.

For its fourth quarter, the firm reported a 12 percent decline in revenues to Canadian Dollar 2.56 billion, down from Canadian Dollar 2.92 billion the same quarter last year.

Its losses follow a profit of Canadian Dollar 52.4 million a year earlier.

As a result the company slashed its dividend by 65 percent, from 28.7 cents to 10 cents per share.

SNC-Lavalin was charged in 2015 with corruption for allegedly bribing officials in Libya between 2001 and 2011 to secure government contracts during former strongman Moamer Kadhafi's reign.

It lobbied the Canadian government, including senior officials in Trudeau's office, for an out-of-court settlement that would include paying a fine and agreeing to put in place compliance measures.

But then-attorney general Jodi Wilson-Raybould refused to ask prosecutors to settle with the company, and the trial is set to proceed.

A Globe and Mail article on the alleged attempted meddling in the case has touched off a political firestorm that led to Wilson-Raybould's resignation, along with that of a senior Trudeau advisor, as well as Commons justice committee hearings into the matter.

Canada's independent ethics commissioner has also launched an investigation.