Italian oil services group Saipem was found guilty of international corruption over Nigerian contracts and slapped with penalties of over 25 million euros.

A Milan court fined Saipem 600,000 euros and seized 24.5 million euros ($31.5 million) provisioned by a subsidiary which was accused of bribing officials to win business. Saipem is also embroiled in judicial investigations in Italy and Algeria for allegedly paying bribes to secure $11 billion worth of contracts in the gas-rich northern African country. 

Lawyers for Saipem, which is 43 per cent owned by oil major Eni, said they were stunned by the verdict and the company said it would appeal.

Saipem, which denied wrongdoing, said it did not foresee any financial impact.

“The market is concerned this sentence could also have an impact on the other probe under way regarding Algeria,” a bank analyst in Milan said.

The Nigerian case revolved around a company called Snamprogetti which was accused of paying bribes through a consortium called TSKJ to Nigerian officials to win contracts between 1994 and 2004.

Snamprogetti was a wholly owned subsidiary of Eni until February 2006 when a deal was reached to sell it to Saipem. Snamprogetti was merged into Saipem in 2008. As part of the deal with Eni, the Italian oil major will indemnify Saipem for potential losses resulting from the investigations into TSKJ.