Brookfield Business Partners, a global asset management firm, announced Thursday it would purchase ailing nuclear energy and infrastructure giant Westinghouse Electric from Toshiba for $4.6 billion.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Westinghouse is looking to focus more on nuclear services, including reactor decommissioning. The company already offers a broad range of services in this sector, including decommissioning planning, decontamination, and spent fuel management.
In 2015, Westinghouse joined with Bechtel to form a partnership for decommissioning of nuclear plants in the United States. The team so far has vied for the decommissioning management contract for the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in California, which in December 2016 went to an AECOM-EnergySolutions team.
Westinghouse’s other work in this sphere includes providing technology for cleanup at the Sellafield nuclear site in the United Kingdomng
“The company operates within a complex regulatory and licensing environment requiring depth of expertise and capability,” Brookfield said in its press release, adding Westinghouse has a strong reputation for innovation.
Analysts have said Westinghouse Electric’s role as engineering, procurement, and construction contractor for two now-canceled power reactors at the V.C. Summer nuclear plant in South Carolina contributed to the company’s financial woes.
The failure of the proposed new nuclear units, which would have featured Westinghouse-designed reactors, has triggered a consumer backlash in South Carolina against developers of the project. Coincidentally, the Brookfield purchase of Westinghouse was announced the same week that Virginia-based Dominion Energy said it would buy SCANA, the South Carolina utility-holding company that owns V.C. Summer.
There was no immediate word on how the transaction might affect Westinghouse Government Services, the Westinghouse unit involved in the U.S. Energy Department nuclear cleanup business. Calls and emails to Brookfield were not immediately returned.
“Brookfield will acquire Westinghouse’s global business in its entirety, with all business lines across the globe. This includes Westinghouse Government Services,” a Westinghouse spokesperson said in a Friday email.
Westinghouse Government Services is a limited liability corporation. Company representatives said last year the business was not affected by the Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization that its parent entered in March 2017.
Westinghouse Government Services and President Cathy Hickey opened a new office in Arlington, Va., in spring 2017. Hickey is an alum of CH2M and other DOE contractors.
Brookfield said it would buy 100 percent of Westinghouse Electric, which it called one of the world’s top companies serving nuclear power generation. Brookfield prefers to acquire companies in fields that have either high barriers to entry or low operating costs.
Brookfield, which is traded on both the New York and Toronto stock exchanges, said it expects to fund the deal with about $1 billion worth of equity and $3 billion of long-term debt. The balance of the purchase price involves assumption of various Westinghouse pension, environmental, and other obligations, Brookfield said in its news release.
