While earnings from continuing operations were down at Fluor, Irving, Texas in the second quarter, the engineering and construction contractor said in a Friday press release it is reducing its debt and increasing its guidance for 2021.
There was a net earnings loss from Fluor’s continuing operations of $14.4 million, or $0.08 per common share, for the second quarter ended June 30, compared with a net loss of $8.5 million, or $0.19 per share, in the year-ago quarter.
Quarterly revenue was $3.2 billion, down year-over-year from $3.7 billion.
Quarterly segment operating income for the Mission Solutions, where Fluor oversees its government contracting ventures such as those with the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, was $45 million, up from $10 million a year ago. Segment revenue was $707 million, down from $724 million in the year-ago period.
Quarterly results for the segment reflect “increased execution activity on DOE projects, higher than anticipated performance-based fees, and the release of COVID-19 cost reserves, offset by a decline in execution activity on army logistics and life support programs in Afghanistan and Africa,” the company said in the release.
“I am confident that we remain on the right path to achieve the strategic priorities that we established earlier this year,” said Fluor CEO David Constable in the press release. “Despite a charge on a legacy infrastructure project in the quarter, I am otherwise pleased with the progress we are making on the remaining fixed price projects in our portfolio.”
A Fluor-led team, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, is the incumbent on the $15.8-billion operations contract for the DOE Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The current agreement is scheduled to expire at the end of next month, and a Fluor venture is seeking to land the replacement contract later this year, Constable said.
During the Fluor slide presentation, it was also noted that Fluor is in the running for a combined management and operations contract from the National Nuclear Security Administration for the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas. Earlier this year, a Jacobs-led team was awarded the new Idaho Cleanup Project contract, and will be taking over from incumbent Flour in the New Year.
In addition, Constable said Fluor continues to pick up investors to help monetize its NuScale small modular reactor business line.
Fluor is raising its full year adjusted earnings-per-share guidance from a range of $0.46 to $0.71 per diluted share to a range of $0.60 to $0.80 per diluted share. Initial and revised guidance reflects the impact of the higher share count and assumes a diluted share count of 170 million shares in the second half of the year.
