#lavalin

In Meghan-adjacent news, Trudeau went full-Trump and fired an appointee who was investigating one of his corporate friends. 

edit: added the sillys !!

Montreal-based SNC has been facing a trial in Canada over fraud and corruption charges related to allegations that former executives paid bribes to win contracts in Libya under Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, which fell in 2011. The company’s unsuccessful attempts to reach a settlement led to a political scandal engulfing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau leaves his office with his principal secretary Gerald Butts to attend an emergency cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. The two men, who met at McGill, forged their bonds in debate club. In an interview with McGill News, Trudeau said the experience helped convince him he wasn’t cut out for a career as a lawyer or a debater.   Nonetheless, in 2013, like a throwback to his college days, he was smack back in a debate while running the campaign that would land him in the PMO, and Butts was advising during each commercial break. “Butts … practically pinned his friend against the wall,” according to a 2015 Maclean’s profile. “He slung a jacketed arm over Trudeau’s shoulder and spoke in hushed tones, inches from his face. It wasn’t so much aggressive as intensely friendly — a boxer with his longtime coach — with Trudeau occasionally nodding at Butts’s words.” That helped reinforce a stereotype that Butts served as the brain of the operations while Trudeau provided the charming smile and personality to woo voters. Their life stories, are of course vastly different: Butts, 47, born to a coal miner and nurse in Cape Breton, graduated from McGill, and after earning a master’s degree even briefly pursued a PhD in literature at York University in Toronto. Before finishing his degree, he entered politics, rose through the ranks of former Ontario Premier Dalton McGinty’s office and later became chief executive of World Wildlife Foundation-Canada. Trudeau, meanwhile, the son of a former prime minister, pursued a career as a teacher after McGill until decades later, Butts helped convince him to run for office. According to a 2015 article in the Ottawa Citizen, as early as 2000, days after Pierre Trudeau’s death, the pair talked about the younger Trudeau running for office. The issue came up again throughout the intervening years, including over dinner in Toronto, where Butts lived with his wife and two children. “I often did get the sense that they often would finish each others’ sentences,” said Jonathan Kay, who helped Trudeau with his autobiography and was a columnist for the National Post. Kay said their personalities helped balance each other out, and the stereotype of Butts as the brains behind the operation is a mistake. “They were very much equals,” he said, adding, “when they’re together they balance each other out.” Butts, who is an avid twitter user even while occupying one of the highest positions in government, noted in his statement on the social media platform that one issue stands out to him as most important. “That issue is climate change,” he wrote. “I hope the response to it becomes the collective, non-partisan, urgent effort that science clearly says is required. I hope that happens soon.” Published at Tue, 19 Feb 2019 03:17:50 +0000 Read the full article

SNC Lavalin Stocks Shares Standard & Poor’s says SNC-Lavalin’s growth prospects for oil and gas have “deteriorated” as the diplomatic feud continues between Canada and Saudi Arabia. The agency also highlighted the prospect of a ban of up to 10 years on contracts with the federal government in Canada. The ban is one possible outcome that could flow from a conviction on fraud and corruption charges stemming from alleged dealings with the Libyan regime under Moammar Gadhafi between 2001 and 2011. The downgrade came after the federal ethics commissioner launched an investigation into allegations the Prime Minister’s Office put pressure on former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to help the company avoid a criminal prosecution. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has denied directing Wilson-Raybould on the matter. Companies in this story: (TSX:SNC) Published at Wed, 13 Feb 2019 15:57:35 +0000 Read the full article

The company is set to report its fourth-quarter results on Feb.22. © Thomson Reuters 2019 Published at Mon, 11 Feb 2019 19:13:06 +0000 Read the full article

SNC Lavalin plunges most in almost 30 years after profit warning over ‘serious problem’ in mining SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. dropped the most in at least 27 years after the builder warned it would miss its full-year profit target due to a “serious problem” with a mining contract. It also wrote down the value of its energy unit by $1.24 billion amid a diplomatic spat between Canada and Saudi Arabia. SNC plummeted 24 per cent to $36.97 at 9:38 a.m. in Toronto. Earlier the stock dropped as much as 31 per cent, its biggest intraday decline since at least January 1992, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The plunge wiped out almost $1.8 billion in market value and pushed the stock to a three-year low. “We are disappointed by this morning’s announcement, in addition to being surprised by the change in tone in connection with business relations with Saudi Arabia,” Benoit Poirier, a Desjardins Capital Markets analyst, said Monday in a note to clients. “Management is also taking a more cautious view toward its 2019 outlook to reflect these uncertainties.” Adjusted profit from engineering and construction will be $1.15 to $1.30 a share in 2018, SNC said in a statement Monday. That’s down from an earlier forecast for profit of as much as $2.85 a share. Overall profit for the year will be $2.15 to $2.30 a share, short of the $3.60 to $3.85 range that the Montreal-based company provided as recently as November. SNC said it incurred additional costs in the fourth quarter to deliver the unidentified mining and metallurgy project. In addition, the company “cannot meet the required level of agreement” with its client to book revenue. Unacceptable “This isolated incident is unacceptable and I intend to take appropriate actions to mitigate the financial impacts for the company,” chief executive Neil Bruce said in the statement. SNC didn’t identify the troubled project, saying only that the contract was awarded in 2016. The announcement dials up the pressure on SNC following the refusal last year by Canadian prosecutors to reach a negotiated settlement with the company over past corruption charges. The lack of a deal with Canada has probably cost SNC more than $5 billion in lost revenue and continues to damage its reputation internationally, Bruce told BNN Bloomberg TV in an interview last month. SNC said it would “aggressively” pursue project claims through the contract protocols “up to and including engaging in a dispute resolution process.” Worse than expected trading challenges in oil and gas in the Middle East — and Saudi Arabia in particular — also weighed on fourth-quarter results, SNC said. More than 15 per cent of the company’s global workforce is employed on work in Saudi Arabia, which has been a key source of revenue growth in recent years. Frozen Ties Saudi Arabia froze diplomatic ties and new business deals with Canada in August, following a call by Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland for Saudi human rights activists to be released from prison. The dispute sparked SNC to write down the fair value of its oil and gas segment by $7.06 a share, as a result of impairment tests. “Inter-governmental relations between Canada and Saudi Arabia, together with unpredictable commodity prices and uncertain client investment plans, have led to deterioration in our near-term prospects which we cannot ignore,” SNC said. Next year’s results will also be affected, SNC said Monday. SNC will provide 2019 targets when it releases final fourth-quarter results on Feb. 22. “Unavoidably we will take a more cautious view towards our 2019 prospects to reflect these uncertainties,” the company said without being more specific. Bloomberg.com Published at Mon, 28 Jan 2019 16:52:30 +0000 Read the full article