MONTREAL -- SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. slashed its dividend by 65 per cent Friday as it reported a fourth-quarter loss of $1.6 billion.
The troubled engineering and construction company says it will now pay a quarterly dividend of 10 cents per share compared with its earlier payment of 28.7 cents per share.
SNC has been at the centre of a political scandal in Ottawa over the company's desire to negotiate a deferred prosecution agreement in connection with fraud and bribery charges in relation to business ties between it and Moammar Gadhafi's regime in Libya.
The company also issued to two profit warnings earlier this year related to problems at a mining project and its oil and gas business.
The company's loss for its fourth quarter amounted to $9.11 per diluted share. That compared with a profit of $52.4 million or 30 cents per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Revenue totalled $2.56 billion, down from $2.92 billion.
On an adjusted basis, SNC reported a loss of $1.31 per diluted share compared with an adjusted profit of 98 cents per diluted share a year ago.
Analysts on average had expected a loss of $1.19 per diluted share, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.
