{"id":207077,"date":"2019-03-27T01:39:20","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T05:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=207077"},"modified":"2019-03-27T01:39:20","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T05:39:20","slug":"snc-lavalin-considering-all-options-after-codelco-contract-cancellation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/03\/27\/snc-lavalin-considering-all-options-after-codelco-contract-cancellation\/","title":{"rendered":"SNC-Lavalin considering all options after Codelco contract cancellation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: We\u2019re proud to showcase our new booth design at POWER-GEN International – Follow us and learn about our leading expertise in Power. (Photo<\/a>: SNC-Lavalin\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MONTREAL \u2013 SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. is leaving the door open to a lawsuit against Chile’s state-owned copper mining company, which has terminated its contract with the construction giant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to see if legal actions will be taken,\u201d spokesman Nicolas Ryan said Tuesday. \u201cWe’re looking at all the options.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, the Montreal-based engineering firm said it was \u201cappalled and surprised\u201d that state miner Codelco ended the US$260-million contract due to alleged quality issues and delays in subcontractor payments and project execution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that this termination is unwarranted and in breach of good faith agreements reached by the parties,\u201d SNC-Lavalin said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The contract, awarded in November 2016, included engineering, supply and construction of two new acid plants for a smelter at the Chuquicamata mine in northern Chile.<\/p>\n

SNC-Lavalin said it is now demobilizing the job site and preparing dispute-resolution actions to recover some of the roughly C$350 million in losses, which the company blames on Codelco and subcontractors.<\/p>\n

The announcement from Codelco comes after SNC-Lavalin slashed its profit forecast twice in two weeks earlier this year, stemming largely from problems with the project and plunging SNC’s share price to 10-year lows of around $34.<\/p>\n

It also arrives as the firestorm continues to rage around top government officials who allegedly pressured former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to steer prosecutors toward a remediation agreement with SNC-Lavalin.<\/p>\n

The would-be deal, also called a deferred prosecution agreement, would allow the company to avoid criminal proceedings on bribery and corruption charges linked to business dealings with Moammar Gadhafi’s regime in Libya between 2001 and 2011.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the company walked back a statement by its CEO, who said last week he never cited the protection of 9,000 Canadian jobs as a reason the construction giant should be granted a remediation agreement.<\/p>\n

Neil Bruce told The Canadian Press last Wednesday that if SNC-Lavalin is convicted of criminal charges and barred from bidding on federal contracts its workers would end up working for the Montreal-based company’s foreign rivals.<\/p>\n

Analyst Yuri Lynk of Canaccord Genuity says investors should not expect any recovery on the mine project losses in 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a contract terminated by the world’s largest copper miner is clearly a hit to SNC’s reputation within the mining industry. It is extremely rare for a project sponsor to cancel a contract with an E&C company, especially so close to completion,\u201d Lynk said in a research note Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll told, this is a minor setback for the company,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2013 SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. is leaving the door open to a lawsuit against Chile’s state-owned copper mining company, which …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":206461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-christopher-reynolds","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207078,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207077\/revisions\/207078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}