Terry Macalister
The Guardian
February 6, 2003

A row over bribery allegations yesterday took the shine off shareholder approval for the Amec board to proceed with its full takeover of French construction company SPIE.

A legal case involving SPIE Batignolles and its involvement in a controversial dam known as the Lesotho Highlands Water Project was adjourned on Monday until October in an African court.

Environmental campaigners from Friends of the Earth raised the case at Amec’s extraordinary general meeting in London yesterday, saying the group had failed to warn shareholders about charges facing SPIE when it issued a circular outlining the takeover of all remaining stakes in the French firm.

Hannah Griffiths, a FoE campaigner and Amec shareholder, challenged the board to explain why an important piece of information about SPIE had not been disclosed.

Jean Monville, chairman and chief executive of SPIE and an Amec board member, responded angrily: “You are lying. There is no case going ahead. It has been adjourned.”

He said the case in Lesotho had been brought to the attention of SPIE shareholders six years ago but was no longer relevant because under French law any liabilities would not be transferred to a new company.

The company later pointed out that when Amec first became involved in SPIE the French firm had restructured its business. The SPIE Batignolles contract in Lesotho was specifically excluded from the group which Amec bought into.

The dam scheme in southern Africa attracted the attention of environmentalists who claimed that 27,000 people and hundreds of subsistence farming households were affected but had not been properly compensated.

High ranking officials at the project were imprisoned for taking bribes from multinationals including SPIE and Canada’s Acres International. The latter firm was fined £1.6m but plans to appeal.

After the Amec meeting, Ms Griffiths said she was unimpressed by the board’s response.

“Without wanting to prejudge the outcome of the trial, I think it’s pretty outrageous that a company can avoid responsibility for serious issues such as alleged bribery by a restructuring and a change of name.”

Amec said that the dispute should not overshadow 99.96% approval for the takeover of the remaining 54% of Spie, which would transform Amec into a top-ranking international engineering group. Its shares rose 4% to 187.5p.