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By Michel Rose and Muriel Boselli
PARIS, May 29 (Reuters) - Total SA's Christophe deMargerie, who faces a possible trial over alleged bribes inIran, has been dogged by legal investigations and marketscepticism during his six years at the top of Europe'sthird-largest oil group.
The 61-year-old, whose mandate expires in 2015, has so farfailed to convince that he can deliver on a riskier explorationstrategy. Currently trading at 39.4 euros, Total's stock isvalued at 7.8 times 12-month forward earnings, a 7 percentdiscount on BP and Shell and close to a 20percent discount on average to its global peers.
The decade-long investigations of bribery allegations linkedto Total's dealings with Iraq and Iran have been a persistentlynagging background feature of de Margerie's ascent.
Now the Iran case has come to a head with the companyagreeing on Wednesday to pay $398 million to settle U.S.criminal and civil allegations that it paid bribes to win oiland gas contracts in Iran, while a French prosecutor isrecommending de Margerie himself go to trial.
De Margerie firmly denies any wrongdoing and a Totalspokesman said that the company and de Margerie woulddemonstrate in any trial that their behaviour had been legal.
But for the man nicknamed "Big Moustache" inside thecompany, the development comes at a potentially crucial time,with just two years left to assure his legacy at the groupbefore he leaves the chief executive position.
After graduating from the standard Ecole Superieure deCommerce business school - an anomaly in a company filled withengineers from elite French schools - de Margerie joined thefinancial department of Total in 1974 because, as he once joked,the company was the nearest to his home.
The comment was typical of a free-wheeling style thatadmirers and adversaries alike say masks an astute businesssense and tough negotiating skills.
"KING OF CRUDE"
From a family of ambassadors and top corporate executives, de Margerie's mother is the daughter of Taittinger group founderPierre Taittinger.
Former Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah bin Khalifaal-Attiyah once asked de Margerie - a personal friend - whetherhe needed to work after being told the plush Crillon hotel inParis where they were having dinner belonged at the time to theTaittingers.
"He could have become king of 'Brut' but he has opted tobecome king of crude," cousin Pierre Emmanuel Taittinger said ofde Margerie in an interview with the Wall Street Journal - a punas "Brut" means both dry champagne and crude oil in French.
De Margerie oversaw Total's Middle East operations and thenjoined the group's exploration and production branch, the mostprestigious, in 1995. He became chief executive in 2007.
Aside from the Iran case, de Margerie has watched legaldifficulties mount over Total's dealings in Iraq.
Paris prosecutors asked a criminal court on Feb. 12 to fineTotal 750,000 euros ($1 million) for corrupting foreign agentsduring the U.N. oil-for-food programme for Iraq a decade ago.
Total is accused of bribery, complicity and influence-peddling at the time of the programme, designed to allow SaddamHussein's Iraq to buy humanitarian goods through UnitedNations-controlled oil sales at a time of internationalsanctions.
Total told the court it had taken precautions to avoidillegal payments to the Iraqi government during the U.N.oil-for-food programme, but had been thwarted by an opaquesystem of middlemen that it only discovered later. The finalverdict is due on July 8.
"Christophe was very affected by the legal episodes in Iraqand Iran," a close adviser and friend to de Margerie said. "Hewas not destroyed, but hurt."
None of that has discouraged de Margerie from pursuing a"high-risk, high-reward" exploration strategy -- drilling morewells in difficult-to-reach places -- praised by some butcriticized by investors who say it has yet to yield cashresults.
The strategy is intended to exploit "frontier" basins suchas in the North Sea off the coast of Norway and Scotland to helpTotal meet its 2017 output capacity goal of about 3 millionbarrels of oil equivalent a day. [ID: nL6N0DB3YE]
At the same time, de Margerie has sought to reduce thegroup's exposure to its home French market in the past fewyears, notably with the 2010 closure of its Dunkirk refinery.
The closure plan sparked a nationwide two-week strike byunions, which finally agreed to concede the site after a finalnine hours of talks with management at Total's headquarters.
"He's smart and a charmer, which makes him that bit moredangerous," said Charles Foulard, the coordinator of the CGTunion at Total who led the 2010 strikes.
