British Gas Firm Sound Energy Faces Moroccan Tax Reassessment, Shares Plunge 17%

Sound Energy PLC indicates that it has received from the Directorate General of Taxes (DGI) the notification of reassessment concerning its subsidiary Sound Energy Morocco SARL AU for taxes and duties for the 2016-2017 period. In September 2020, another Moroccan subsidiary of the company, Sound Energy Morocco East Ltd., had also been reassessed for the fiscal years 2016, 2017 and 2018.

The British firm issued a press release to contest this decision of the Moroccan tax administration. "I am disappointed to have received this new notification from the Moroccan tax authorities concerning Sound Energy Morocco SARL AU. Since their arrival in Morocco in 2015, Sound Energy and its partners have invested more than $140 million, without generating any production revenue or capital gains so far," laments the chairman of Sound Energy quoted in the press release.

The company also assures that it has already contacted the government authorities with a view to reaching an agreement. In this sense, a meeting was already held on Monday at the Ministry of Finance, attended by the CEO of Sound Energy, senior officials from the Ministry of Finance, the DGI and the ONHYM.

The news of this reassessment affected Sound Energy’s share price on the London Stock Exchange. The British firm was down 17% at the opening of trading on Tuesday.