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S&P assigned a negative outlook due to uncertainty in the company’s ability to recover earnings and cash flow so that adjusted debt-to-Ebitda returns below three times by next year. SNC is still rated investment grade at DBRS Inc.

Last week, Trudeau was plunged back into the biggest scandal of his term just two months before elections, after the nation’s ethics watchdog ruled he inappropriately interfered in a judicial matter linked to SNC.

Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion said Trudeau sought to pressure his former attorney general last year to help SNC-Lavalin settle corruption charges out of court, partly for political reasons. Since the engineering firm would have benefitted financially from Trudeau’s efforts, the prime minister’s actions contravened conflict of interest laws, the watchdog concluded.

Shares of SNC have tumbled 63 per cent this year after the company issued three profit warnings, wrote down the value of its Middle East energy business and lost a contract in Chile valued at $260 million. The stock rose 2.4 per cent Monday in Toronto.

SNC’s $300 million of 3.235 per cent notes due 2023 were quoted at about 237 basis points over Canadian benchmark government debt, the widest spread since they were issued in February last year.

Bloomberg.com