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On Monday, Preem announced that plans to expand the Preemraff oil refinery were suspended.
When the news came, DN had been looking to Preem’s management for nearly a week to ask questions about the company’s financial condition.
DN’s review shows that Preem has been short of cash and has been forced to turn to the state for help.
Among other things, 30 percent of staff have been laid off in the short term with state support. The company has also received a VAT deferral and employer contributions of just over SEK 1.5 billion. Preem also tried to postpone paying taxes on energy and carbon dioxide totaling SEK 2.27 billion, but was rejected. The Swedish Revenue Agency considered that the risk that they would not be able to return the money was too great.
Mohammed al-Amoudi, owner and president of Preem, Jason Milazzo.
Photo: Private
On August 25 this year After all, Preem was able to get a dividend at an Extraordinary General Meeting totaling SEK 247 million. The rules for short-term layoffs state that dividends are not allowed at the same time that state support is received. But according to Preem, the dividend was made in agreement with the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, which should have approved the scheme.
Mattias Backmark, Preem’s head of investor relations, writes in an email to DN that this is not a dividend for the owner but rather a group contribution. In the email write:
“It was not a dividend for our owner, but it is a group contribution to pay the interest on a bank loan in our holding company, Corral Petroleum Sweden AB.”
According to documents from the Swedish Business Registration Office, the additional dividend was applied in 2019.
That same year, Preem negotiated its agreement with the chairman of the board of directors of Preem and Corral Petroleum Sweden AB, Jason Milazzo.
According to information in previous annual reports, he was hired as a consultant by Sparrow Winds Ltd to serve on the board and was subsequently entitled to a 30-month notice period.
In this house, in the town of St. Helier on the small island of Jersey, the company Sparrow Winds Ltd. is registered.
Photo: Google Maps
When the deal was negotiated SEK 116.5 million was paid to the company.
In the annual report, the agreement is described as follows:
“The compensation consists of a lump sum based on a cumulative result of a 30-month release clause in the consulting contract.”
This corresponds to 3.8 million SEK per month.
DN traces Sparrow Winds Ltd to a mailbox in the town of St. Helier on the small island of Jersey in the English Channel, known as a tax haven.
Copy of the company documents of Sparrow Winds Limited of Jersey.
Who is the true owner of the company is hidden in the company documents. Instead, it is the professional representatives of the Withmill company who come forward, a common agreement to hide the actual owners.
Withmill offers, among other things, company training and “flexible wealth planning”.
In Sweden it is not It is allowed to bill fees for board assignments; instead, the fee must be paid directly to the individual and taxed as income from employment.
Jason Milazzo is not registered in Sweden and therefore should not pay income tax here; Instead, the so-called zinc tax applies to homes abroad that the employer must pay.
Preem claims that they previously paid their meeting fee to Sparrow Winds Ltd.
But according to press secretary Dani Backteg, Preem stopped him “immediately after the rules were changed in Sweden.”
Now the board fees of SEK 900,000 per year are paid as salary and in parallel he has been able to invoice the consultant’s fees to Jersey.
Preem CEO Petter Finn Holland had an annual salary of 16.5 million SEK in 2019 according to the annual report.
Can you really be chairman of the board and a consultant at the same time?
– Yes, if you ask me legally, you can do it and obviously the parties have thought it works, says press manager Dani Backteg.
– It is not an ethical or moral position, neither mine nor the company, he says.
According to a statement from Preem, Sparrow Winds Limited had, among other things, a central role in the renegotiation of the Group’s loans.
“Overall, Sparrow Winds Limited provided unique competence, experience and network of contacts, which Preem lacked internally, and therefore played a crucial role in successful negotiations with international banks,” the company writes.
