Babcock & Wilcox has announced it might split into two companies, with one focused on its general power generation business and another operating its nuclear and government contracting efforts.
The Wall Street Journal reported that a final decision on the split has not yet been made, and the company will announce more information in its third-quarter earnings report in November. Headquartered in Barberton, Ohio, B&W Power Generation Group provides power plants and industrial facilities with steam generating equipment and emissions control equipment, as well as engineering services. It would be split off from the company's four other subsidiaries: small-modular reactor developer B&W mPower, B&W Nuclear Energy, naval-propulsion contractor B&W Nuclear Operations Group and B&W Technical Services Group, which pursues contracts from the Department of Energy and other government agencies. Both of the new companies would be publicly traded.
B&W's board is considering whether the split would increase shareholder value, and the Charlotte Observer reported that the company has hired an investment bank and law firms to study the potential deal. B&W was once a spinoff of McDermott International. When that split took place in 2010, the company moved its headquarters to Charlotte, N.C.