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SINGAPORE: Oil rig builder SembCorp Marine has revealed that losses from unauthorised foreign exchange transactions made by its former finance director are higher than previously thought.
At US$220 million, the losses are US$55 million more than the figures given earlier. But according to SembMarine, the figures are not in its books just yet because the company is disputing the losses.
The oil rig builder booked a net income of S$81.4 million, 82 per cent higher than that of last year, for the third quarter.
At its news briefing on Thursday, however, the focus was clearly on its forex losses.
When asked about the US$220 million losses, SembCorp Marine’s director Ajaib Haridass said, "We can only say that was a dynamic position, and you know the volatility of the currency over these last few days. So we needed to close the positions very quickly."
SembMarine would only disclose that the transacted foreign currencies included US dollars and euros. It closed the positions at 3am on Thursday with the 11 banks it transacted with.
The oil rig builder said it is disputing its liability for those losses.
"It's not a loss, as you will see from the statements, it's being challenged. We say that these transactions are invalid, so it's not a loss," said Mr Haridass.
Besides the US$220 million dollars in losses, SembMarine is also disputing another US$83 million dollars that its subsidiary Jurong Shipyard paid to one of the banks before the unauthorised transactions were discovered. - CNA/ac
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