The newly appointed president and CEO of Montreal construction and engineering giant SNC-Lavalin is not expecting a plea deal on criminal charges in the wake of the Trudeau Liberals re-election.

Ian Edwards, who was appointed today after serving in an interim role since June, says the company remains focused on defending itself in court in an upcoming trial on bribery and corruption charges linked to SNC-Lavalin’s alleged dealings in Libya from 2001-2011.

”Obviously if there were opportunities for settling this in another way, we’d be open to that.  But we don’t expecct it,” said Edwards.

SNC-Lavalin shares rose 14% the day after the election, which left open the possibility of a deferred prosecution agreement that would see the charges dropped.