Nuclear waste management provider Perma-Fix Environmental Services said Monday it recorded an operating loss of $11.2 million for the second quarter of 2016, a steep departure from the $613,000 of operating income earned for the same period in 2015.
The earnings report was delayed by about a week because the company failed to meet its quarterly fixed charge coverage ratio, resulting primarily from delays in receiving certain waste shipments for treatment, which the company has rescheduled for later this year. CEO Louis F. Centofanti described the “disappointing” results during the company’s earnings call Monday, explaining that Perma-Fix is revising its full-year projection for adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) by about 50 percent to between $3 million and $4 million. Centofanti in May said the company anticipated full-year adjusted EBITDA to exceed the $7 million recorded in 2015, adding that the company would turn a profit if it hit that mark.
“The numbers were weaker than we had hoped,” Centofanti said. “We still expect a strong second half of the year. Our only concern is our biggest challenge given the influx of shipments in the second half is how quickly we will be able to treat the waste and how much (revenue) we’ll be able to recognize in 2016.”
Perma-Fix’s quarterly operating loss included non-cash tangible and intangible asset impairment charges of approximately $1.8 million and $8.3 million, respectively, due to the pending shutdown of the company’s M&EC facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., which treats a variety of mixed low-level waste. Centofanti said the closure, scheduled for January 2018, will result in significant long-term savings, as it is the only Perma-Fix plant the company doesn’t own.
