Petrofac shares jump 21% as UAE-backed oil firm lifts suspension

(Reuters) -Petrofac's shares soared 21% on Wednesday after the United Arab Emirates-backed oil firm, ADNOC, lifted a year-long suspension on the British oilfield services provider that barred it from competing for new contracts in the Gulf country.

The London-listed company, which helps build, manage, and maintain oil, gas, refining, petrochemicals and other energy infrastructure, said it is now allowed to participate in ADNOC's new tenders with immediate effect.

Petrofac had faced several setbacks that has weighed on its stock price in the past few years as Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in 2017 started investigating the company's dealings in the Middle East.

ADNOC's suspension in March last year, which followed bribery charges brought by the SFO over payments made to agents to influence awarding of contracts worth $3.3 billion in the UAE, further battered its shares.

The UAE accounted for roughly 10% of Petrofac's contract revenue in 2019.

The news that ADNOC that lifted its suspension removes a "huge commercial overhang", Jefferies analysts said.

Petrofac in October was handed a fine of more than $100 million by a court in London after pleading guilty to bribes related to contracts in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the UAE between 2011 and 2017, drawing a line under the bribery probe.

(Reporting by Muhammed Husain and Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)