Yahoo Finance Petrofac chairman heads for the exit as SFO probe rumbles on
The chairman of Petrofac is heading for the exit as the troubled oil services group navigates an ongoing corruption probe by the Serious Fraud Office.
Rijnhard van Tets told the embattled Petrofac board that he would step down after three years at the helm in May next year.
Petrofac will replace Mr Van Tets as chairman with René Médori, the former chief financial officer of Anglo American, who is currently a senior independent director at the FTSE-listed company.
The boardroom shake-up follows a crushing year for the group, which provides engineering services to major oil companies. The SFO is currently investigating whether Petrofac paid Monaco-based Unaoil to act as a middleman by bribing officials in order to secure service contracts.
The chairman’s departure is the second major leadership loss since the SFO swooped in May.
Petrofac suspended its chief operating officer Marwan Chedid following his arrest alongside Petrofac chief executive Ayman Asfari.
Mr Asfari continues to run Petrofac’s daily operations but is not involved with the internal committee set up to manage the investigation.
Petrofac has denied any wrongdoing. The company has also defied investor fears by continuing to snap up lucrative service contracts even as the investigation rumbles on.
But the probe has nonetheless wiped billions from the group’s market value, leaving the company vulnerable to a takeover.
Earlier this week Petrofac announced that it had secured a two-year extension to its contract with the Basra Oil Company, worth $160m.
Petrofac told investors in an end-of-year trading update that in total the group had secured $5.2bn worth of new orders this year.
Mr Asfari said the group had seen “a recovery” in new order intake in 2017.
“Tendering activity remains high, we continue to maintain our bidding discipline in competitive markets and we have a healthy order backlog,” he added.
Petrofac is understood to be preparing for a potential takeover approach from a larger oilfield service company which may be interested in taking advantage of its depressed share price. Earlier this week, reports said the company is also investigating a sale of its North Sea assets.
The share price rose to over 457p as a result, but slipped 2pc following the chairman’s resignation back to 445p on Thursday morning.
The £1.5bn company is worth less than half what it was before the SFO sting in May.
