(Official correction to say Lufkin sentence fully suspended,
not just for 18 months)
By Shadia Nasralla
Oct 4 (Reuters) - British oil services company Petrofac
was fined 77 million pounds ($105 million) on Monday and
a former executive jailed after they pleaded guilty to bribery
in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The fine is less than the $240 million penalty that the
company said on Saturday it might face and its shares jumped 8%
after the announcement to their highest since June 2020.
A spokesperson for the company said former executive David
Lufkin was sentenced by Southwark Crown Court in London to a
two-year suspended sentence.
Lufkin's lawyer was not immediately available for comment.
The court took into account the extensive programme of
corporate reform that Petrofac has undergone in recent years,
the spokesperson said.
He added the company intended to proceed with a refinancing
flagged on Saturday, which it had said could include raising
debt or equity.
With the four-year investigation by Britain's Serious Fraud
Office (SFO) hanging over its past contracts, Petrofac has
struggled to secure key contracts in the Middle East and has
seen its shares battered.
The company last month pleaded guilty to seven counts of
failing to prevent bribery between 2011 and 2017, hoping to draw
a line under what its chairman has called a "deeply regrettable
period".
($1 = 0.7363 pounds)
(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla Additional reporting by Yadarisa
Shabong and Kirstin Ridley
Editing by Anil D'Silva and Mark Potter)
Petrofac (PFC)
