MILAN, Feb 15 (Reuters) – Cash-strapped Italian energy services group Saipem said on Tuesday it had set aside 192 million euros ($218 million) to cover a fine imposed by an Algerian court over alleged corruption which it said it would appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saipem SPMI.MI, which shocked investors last month when it said that a “significant deterioration” in margins will shave a billion euros off its core earnings, added it was not yet aware of the reasons for the court ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The payment was suspended in the meantime, said Saipem, which is controlled by energy group Eni ENI.MI and Italian state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The case revolves around the 2008 tender for the award of the GNL3 Arzew contract by state-owned Sonatrach to build a single-train gas liquefaction plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ruling comes as Saipem is discussing a funding package with shareholders and creditor banks to revive its fortunes. The group, with a market valuation of some 1 billion euros, expects net debt at the end of 2021 to be around 1.5 billion euros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saipem said on Tuesday that it would submit an updated strategic plan for approval by the board on March 15 and present it to investors in a conference call the following day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The plan, originally presented last October but pulled with the profit warning, had been expected on Feb. 24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The problems are much more complex than was first thought,” a source close to the matter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier in February Saipem bowed to pressure and appointed two new managers to represent its top two shareholders and flank company CEO Francesco Caio and CFO Antonio Paccioretti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saipem said it would present guidelines for the review of the 2022-25 plan on Feb. 24 with some financial results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MILAN, Feb 15 (Reuters) – Cash-strapped Italian energy services group Saipem said on Tuesday it had set aside 192 million euros ($218 million) to cover a fine imposed by an Algerian court over alleged corruption which it said it would appeal. Saipem SPMI.MI, which shocked investors last month when it said that a “significant deterioration” in margins will …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-news","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/algeriainvestmentnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/algeriainvestmentnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/algeriainvestmentnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/algeriainvestmentnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/algeriainvestmentnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/algeriainvestmentnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":450,"href":"https:\/\/algeriainvestmentnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions\/450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/algeriainvestmentnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/algeriainvestmentnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/algeriainvestmentnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/algeriainvestmentnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}