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 penalty from Southwark Crown Court in London is less than the $240 million the company had said it might face for failing to prevent bribery between 2011 and 2017.
Its shares jumped as much as 17% after the announcement to their highest since June 2020.
A spokesperson for the company said former global head of sales David Lufkin, who pleaded guilty to 14 counts of bribing agents with more than $80 million to influence around $7.5 billion of contracts, was sentenced to a two-year suspended sentence.
Lufkin's lawyer was not immediately available for comment.
"All employees involved in the charges have left the business. This concludes the Serious Fraud Office's investigation into the company. In determining the penalty, the Court and the Serious Fraud Office acknowledged Petrofac's corporate reform," the company said.
Petrofac intends to proceed with a refinancing flagged ahead of the sentence, which 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 case marked the second corporate guilty plea secured by the SFO in about five months.
Former Airbus subsidiary GPT Special Project Management pleaded guilty to corruption over military contracts for Saudi Arabia in April.
($1 = 0.7363 pounds)
(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla Additional reporting by Yadarisa Shabong and Kirstin Ridley Editing by Anil D'Silva and Mark Potter) ((Yadarisa.Shabong@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: https://twitter.com/Yadarisa; +919742735150;))
