BARBERTON, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:BW) (B&W) announced today that
it is updating the status and expected turnover and transition to
ongoing maintenance of four European Renewable energy projects it
previously announced would be handed over to customers by the end of
2018.
“Since joining B&W in late November, B&W Executive Vice President of
Finance Louis Salamone, B&W Chief Strategy Officer Henry Bartoli, and I,
along with B&W Chief Implementation Officer Robert Caruso, Interim B&W
Chief Financial Officer Joel Mostrom and others, have conducted daily
reviews and updates of B&W’s various Renewable projects in Europe and
have visited a number of them,” said B&W Chief Executive Officer Kenneth
Young. “These four projects are now operational and are in various
stages of performance and reliability testing. Based on our continued
reviews and discussions with customers, we anticipate turnover of these
projects will take place at various times during the first and second
quarters of 2019.”
“These four plants have reached active operational status and are
generating steam heat and delivering electricity to the grid,” Young
said. “Our DynaGrate® combustion grate systems are performing
as expected and a few of the Renewable plants have achieved operational
output of 100 to 105 percent.”
“We are currently making adjustments and modifications to maximize
performance for our customers, and a few of the sites are now, or will
be, shifting into reliability and performance testing over the next
several weeks,” he continued. “We are working closely with our customers
and financial institutions to move effectively through various handover
and testing processes, procedures, documentation, punch lists, and
test/certifications and anticipate final turnover and transition into
maintenance phases within the first and second quarters of 2019. Two of
these plants also will shift into 15-year operational and maintenance
contracts with Babcock & Wilcox Vølund.”
“Additionally, Lou, Henry, Bob, Joel and I are evaluating further cost
reductions for B&W’s business, in addition to the previously announced
significant cost improvements,” Young said. “We do see a pathway to
reach run-rate EBITDA levels around $100 million within the company’s
respective core businesses in the future, following the completion of
all current loss projects. We will implement a deeper level of
profit-and-loss accountability within our lines of business and believe
we can optimize the various business units even further. In addition, we
will begin the process to refinance our senior debt positions in the
first quarter.”
“Finally, I want to personally thank all our stakeholders for their
continued support, hard work and efforts, and specifically recognize the
outstanding effort by all the B&W employees who are working around the
clock, through the holidays and weekends to ensure we support our
customers and meet our commitments as a company.”
About B&W
Babcock & Wilcox is a global leader in energy and environmental
technologies and services for the power and industrial markets, and has
been transforming our world for 151 years. Follow us on Twitter
@BabcockWilcox
and learn more at
www.babcock.com
.
Forward-Looking Statements
B&W cautions that this release contains forward-looking statements,
including, without limitation, statements relating to our strategic
objectives, future profitability,
and pending and future project
execution. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s
current expectations and involve a number of risks and uncertainties,
including, among other things, our ability to continue as a going
concern; our ability to obtain and maintain sufficient financing to
provide liquidity to meet our business objectives, surety bonds, letters
of credit and similar financing; our ability to satisfy the liquidity
and other requirements under our U.S. revolving credit facility as
recently amended, including our ability to receive concessions from
customers on our Renewable energy loss contracts; our ability to
maintain compliance with the NYSE’s continued listing criteria; the
highly competitive nature of our businesses; general economic and
business conditions, including changes in interest rates and currency
exchange rates; general developments in the industries in which we are
involved; cancellations of and adjustments to backlog and the resulting
impact from using backlog as an indicator of future earnings; our
ability to perform contracts on time and on budget, in accordance with
the schedules and terms established by the applicable contracts with
customers; failure by third-party subcontractors, joint venture partners
or suppliers to perform their obligations on time and as specified; our
ability to realize anticipated savings and operational benefits from our
restructuring plans, and other cost-savings initiatives; our ability to
successfully address productivity and schedule issues in our Renewable
segment, including the ability to complete our Renewable energy projects
within the expected time frame and the estimated costs; our ability to
successfully partner with third parties to win and execute renewable
contracts; changes in our effective tax rate and tax positions; our
ability to maintain operational support for our information systems
against service outages and data corruption, as well as protection
against cyber-based network security breaches and theft of data; our
ability to protect our intellectual property and renew licenses to use
intellectual property of third parties; our use of the
percentage-of-completion method of accounting; our ability to
successfully manage research and development projects and costs,
including our efforts to successfully develop and commercialize new
technologies and products; the operating risks normally incident to our
lines of business, including professional liability, product liability,
warranty and other claims against us; changes in, or our failure or
inability to comply with, laws and government regulations; actual or
anticipated changes in governmental regulation, including trade and
tariff policies; difficulties we may encounter in obtaining regulatory
or other necessary permits or approvals; changes in, and liabilities
relating to, existing or future environmental regulatory matters;
changes in actuarial assumptions and market fluctuations that affect our
net pension liabilities and income; potential violations of the Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act; our ability to successfully compete with current
and future competitors; the loss of key personnel and the continued
availability of qualified personnel; our ability to negotiate and
maintain good relationships with labor unions; changes in pension and
medical expenses associated with our retirement benefit programs;
social, political, competitive and economic situations in foreign
countries where we do business or seek new business; the possibilities
of war, other armed conflicts or terrorist attacks; the willingness of
customers and suppliers to continue to do business with us on reasonable
terms and conditions; and our ability to successfully consummate
strategic alternatives for non-core assets, if we determine to pursue
them. If one or more of these risks or other risks materialize, actual
results may vary materially from those expressed. For a more complete
discussion of these and other risk factors, see B&W’s filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent annual
report on Form 10-K and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. B&W
cautions not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements, which speak only as of the date of this release, and
undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking
statement, except to the extent required by applicable law.
View source version on businesswire.com:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181231005026/en/
Investor Contact:
Megan Wilson
Vice President,
Corporate Development & Investor Relations
Babcock & Wilcox
704.625.4944
| investors@babcock.com
Media
Contact:
Ryan Cornell
Public Relations
Babcock &
Wilcox
330.860.1345 | rscornell@babcock.com
Source: Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc.