As the 86 per cent slide in Petrofac’s (PFC) share price between 2018 and 2022 indicates, there have been plenty more sellers than buyers of its shares in recent years. There are well-documented reasons for this. In October 2021, the Serious Fraud Office secured convictions against the energy services company for seven counts of bribery.
Petrofac admitted its executives paid £32mn of bribes to win oil contracts worth around £2.6bn in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Former chief executive Ayman Asfari, who first brought the company to the stock market in 2005, resigned in the midst of the scandal in 2020, although he remained on the board as a non-executive. The company brought in ex-Shell executive Sami Iskander as his replacement early in 2021 but then announced in November 2022 will move on “to pursue other interests”. He will be replaced from April this year by Tareq Kawash, currently a divisional head at Houston-based McDermott International (US:MCDIF).
Petrofac was temporarily banned from bidding for new work in Saudi Arabia and the UAE but its ban in the latter market was lifted early last year.
Still, revenue for 2022 is likely to fall by around $500mn (£415mn) to $2.5bn due to slower than expected business wins, the company said in a trading update last month. Cost overruns on “Covid-affected legacy contracts” also mean it is on track to post an operating loss of at least $100mn for its third successive year.
Following the update, Petrofac’s share price slumped below 66p, sinking its market capitalisation to under £350mn. Asfari, Iskander and chairman Rene Médori took this as their cue to add to their holdings. Asfari spent £650,000 increasing his stake to 16.3 per cent, making him the biggest single shareholder.
There’s an argument that Petrofac’s shares look cheap on a pure valuation basis, but both financial and reputational risks linger. The company’s shares remain among the most shorted on the London Stock Exchange.
| Buys | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Director/PDMR | Date | Price (p) | Aggregate value (£) | Stake size (%) |
| Ace Liberty & Stone | Antonios Ghorayeb (ch) ** | 14 Dec 22 | 25 | 57,548 | 0.98% |
| Ace Liberty & Stone | Ismail Ghandour (ce) ** | 14 Dec 22 | 25 | 221,123 | 6.23% |
| Advanced Oncotherapy | Michael Bradfield | 29 Dec 22 | 13 | 65,825 | 1.55% |
| Alien Metals | Rod McIlree | 21 Dec 22 | 0.5 | 48,976 | 2.58% |
| Amaroq Minerals | David Neuhauser * | 15-16 Dec 22 | 42 † | 27,716 † | 5.50% |
| Bank of Cyprus | Dinos Iordanou | 22 Dec 22 | 145 | 146,749 | n/d |
| Bank of Ireland | Mark Spain (cfo) | 22 Dec 22 | 776 † | 23,732 † | n/d |
| Base Resources | Michael Stirzaker (ch) | 20 Dec 22 | 13 † | 53,615 † | 0.04% |
| Braveheart | Trevor Brown (ce) | 16 Dec 22 | 9 | 22,500 | 20.16% |
| Byotrol | Vivan Pinto (ce) * | 19-21 Dec 22 | 2 | 26,180 | 0.30% |
| Convatec | Jonny Mason (cfo) | 19 Dec 22 | 227 | 63,625 | n/d |
| Dalata Hotel | Gervaise Slowey | 19 Dec 22 | 278 † | 24,843 † | n/d |
| DFS | Steve Johnson (ch) * | 21 Dec 22 | 148 | 38,480 | n/d |
| Enquest | Amjad Bseisu (ce) * | 19 Dec 22 | 21 | 922,551 | n/d |
| Ferrexpo | James North (ce) | 22 Dec 22 | 166 | 181,175 | n/d |
| Gooch & Housego | Chris Jewell (cfo) | 20 Dec 22 | 516 | 22,895 | 0.02% |
| Goodwin | Matthew Goodwin | 20 Dec 22 | 3,218 | 100,082 | 83.94% |
| Goodwin | Richard Goodwin | 21 Dec 22 | 3,341 | 99,957 | 0.25% |
| Gran Tierra Energy | Ryan Ellson (cfo) | 16 Dec 22 | 72 † | 35,832 † | n/d |
| GSK | Sir Jonathan Symonds | 20 Dec 22 | 1,417 | 29,761 | n/d |
| GSK | Dr Vishal Sikka | 20 Dec 22 | 2,862 (ADS) † | 32,825 † | n/d |
| Insig AI | Richard Bernstein (ce) | 22-23 Dec 22 | 14 | 63,108 | 14.24% |
| Intermediate Capital | Rusty Nelligan | 21 Dec 22 | 1,131 | 90,480 | 0.05% |
| Kainos | Katie Davis | 20 Dec 22 | 1,564 | 100,088 | 0.01% |
| LBG Media | Solly Solomou (ce) * | 22 Dec 22 | 100 | 50,000 | 41.99% |
| M&G | Benoît Macé | 16 Dec 22 | 183 | 23,790 | n/d |
| Man | Anne Wade | 16 Dec 22 | 211 | 31,610 | n/d |
| Manolete Partners | Howard Leigh (ch) | 20 Dec 22 | 251 | 95,489 | n/d |
| On the Beach | Simon Cooper (ce) | 21 Dec 22 | 153 | 44,510 | 5.83% |
| On the Beach | Shaun Morton (cfo) | 21 Dec 22 | 153 | 56,722 | 0.07% |
| Oncimmune | Alistair Macdonald (ch) ** | 16 Dec 22 | 45 | 25,000 | n/d |
| Oncimmune | Tim Bunting ** | 16 Dec 22 | 45 | 855,000 | 6.55% |
| Pearson | Tim Score | 15 Dec 22 | 909 | 28,381 | 0.01% |
| Pearson | Omid Kordestani (ch) | 15 Dec 22 | 926 (ADS) † | 68,465 † | 0.01% |
| Petrofac | René Médori (ch) | 20 Dec 22 | 66 | 99,272 | 0.08% |
| Petrofac | Sami Iskander (ce) | 20 Dec 22 | 65 | 141,900 | 0.08% |
| Petrofac | Ayman Asfari | 20 Dec 22 | 66 | 655,480 | 16.30% |
| Seeen | Adrian Hargrave (ce) ** | 23 Dec 22 | 6 | 35,000 | 0.84% |
| Seeen | Dr Patrick DeSouza (ch) * / ** | 23 Dec 22 | 6 | 125,000 | 6.36% |
| Springfield Properties | Sandy Adam (ch) | 14 Dec 22 | 78 | 173,304 | 32.10% |
| Springfield Properties | Innes Smith (ce) * | 16 Dec 22 | 77 | 39,975 | 0.80% |
| Tialis Essential IT | Ian Smith | 21-23 Dec 22 | 70 | 82,273 | 83.94% |
| Tiger Royalties and Investments | Colin Bird (ch) ** | 20 Dec 22 | 0.2 | 25,000 | 10.00% |
| Tiger Royalties and Investments | Raju Samtani (cfo) ** | 20 Dec 22 | 0.2 | 25,000 | 7.65% |
| Tribal | Roger McDowell | 16 Dec 22 | 42 | 415,830 | 1.88% |
| Trident Royalties | Adam Davidson (ce) | 28 Dec 22 | 51 | 39,530 | 0.10% |
| Warehouse Reit | Paul Makin | 20 Dec 22 | 105 | 20,952 | n/d |
| Yourgene Health | Dr Bill Chang ** | 22 Dec 22 | 0.3 | 600,000 | 8.76% |
| Yourgene Health | Lyn Rees (ce) ** | 22 Dec 22 | 0.3 | 250,000 | 2.67% |
| Yourgene Health | Adam Reynolds ** | 22 Dec 22 | 0.3 | 100,000 | 1.25% |
| Yourgene Health | John Brown (ch) ** | 22 Dec 22 | 0.3 | 100,000 | 1.05% |
| Yourgene Health | Stephen Little ** | 22 Dec 22 | 0.3 | 80,000 | 1.05% |
| Sells | |||||
| Company | Director/PDMR | Date | Price (p) | Aggregate value (£) | Stake size (%) |
| Accrol | Gareth Jenkins (ce) | 19 Dec 22 | 28 | 280,000 | 1.39% |
| BP Marsh | Brian Marsh (ch) * | 22 Dec 22 | 297 | 1,639,440 | 40.33% |
| Future | Penny Ladkin-Brand (cfo) | 14 Dec 22 | 1,275 | 816,000 | n/d |
| Future | Zillah Byng-Thorne (ce) * | 14 Dec 22 | 1,274 | 26,754 | n/d |
| Rio Tinto | Alfredo Barrios | 29 Dec 22 | 5,850 | 1,462,555 | n/d |
| SSE | Stephen Wheeler | 21 Dec 22 | 1,709 | 51,270 | n/d |
| TBC Bank | Giorgi Megrelishvili | 21 Dec 22 | 2,200 | 276,782 | n/d |
| TBC Bank | George Tkhelidze | 21 Dec 22 | 2,200 | 249,810 | n/d |
| Unilever | Sanjiv Mehta | 19 Dec 22 | 4,156 † | 827,447 † | n/d |
| * Spouse/Family/Close Associate. ** placing / open offer † Converted from € / $ / C$ / AUS$ | |||||
