Market Report: Sweett Group ordered to pay £2.35m over Middle East bribery

The SFO’s director said Sweett’s fine sends a strong message

Friday marked the end of another colourful chapter in AIM’s 20-year history as construction company Sweett Group was ordered to pay £2.35m after admitting in December to bribery related to two contracts in the Middle East.

Southwark Crown Court slapped a £1.4m fine on the AIM-listed company, decided to confiscate £850,000, and ordered it to pay £95,000 to cover the prosecution’s legal costs.

Sweett pleaded guilty to failing to prevent bribery, which was intended to win and retain a contract with the UAE-based Al Ain Ahlia Insurance.

David Green, director of the Serious Fraud Office, hailed the first conviction of a company under new bribery rules introduced in 2011, saying it “sends a strong message” to others.

But investors were pleased by the modest sum that Sweett will have to fork out and the shares leapt late in the day to finish up 4.5p or 24 per cent at 23.5p.

The FTSE 100 succumbed to profit-taking at the end of the week, drifting 21.72 points lower to 5,950.23, with oil companies to blame for the decline as the price of Brent receded $1.38 to $32.90 a barrel. Royal Dutch Shell fell 26.5p to 1,560.5p and BP 2.15p to 343.25p.

Soft drinks bottler Coca-Cola HBC fizzed 39p higher to 1,413p after its annual results exceeded expectations, with a 13 per cent rise in net profits to €314m, once restructuring costs are stripped out.

AstraZeneca got the green light from EU regulators for its gout and heart attack treatments, but that could not prevent the drugmaker’s shares from dropping 56.5p to 4,073p.

Luxury shoe maker Jimmy Choo got off on the wrong foot with investors at the start of London Fashion Week, stumbling 1.4p to 122.2p on the mid-cap index.

Away from the main market, the embattled electronic parts distributor APC Technology Group gave investors a jolt with a £1.3m share placing and subscription at 6p, a sharp discount on the share price, which fell 1.5p to 6.63p.

Elsewhere among the tiddlers, Milestone Group rocketed 0.28p or 85 per cent to 0.6p as it launched a music-streaming service called MusicRoo, with more than 35 million songs in its library.