MONTREAL - SNC-Lavalin Group Inc.'s latest financial results were hurt by COVID-19's impact on productivity at some of its projects as well as an unexpectedly expensive arbitration decision.

The Montreal-based engineering company on Friday reported a third-quarter loss of $85.1 million, or 48 cents per diluted share. The per-share loss included 15 cents of profit from its capital investments, which partly offset a loss from its main business.

In 2019 SNC had a third-quarter profit of $2.76 billion, which included $15.04 per share from capital investments and 67 cents of profit from professional services and project management.

SNC's largest source of revenue, engineering services, as well as its capital division, were profitable during the quarter but its projects division lost money.

SNCL Projects was hit by a $57.9-million arbitration ruling related to a legacy resource project, the company said, and by lower productivity due to COVID-19.

The stock was down 9.9 per cent in late-afternoon trading.