During its quarterly earnings report next week, Dallas-based Jacobs could unveil a deal to sell its government contracting business to the owners of another major player in the Department of Energy’s weapons complex, according to Reuters.
Jacobs, an international engineering, construction and procurement contractor, “is in advanced talks” with Virginia-based Amentum, according to “people familiar with the matter,” Reuters reported Thursday.
A deal with Amentum’s owners, American Securities and Lindsay Goldberg, might employ a “Reverse Morris Trust,” which could make the transaction debt-free to Jacobs stockholders, Reuters reported. Should the deal be consummated, it could be announced Tuesday morning in Jacobs’ quarterly earnings report.
The possible combination of Amentum with Jacobs Critical Mission Solutions contracting business was first reported by the news service last month. Jacobs announced its plans to divest its government contracting business in May.
Jacobs is the lead partner in DOE environmental cleanup contracts at the Idaho National Laboratory, the Paducah Site in Kentucky and the West Valley Demonstration Project in western New York state. Amentum is the lead in environmental joint ventures at the Hanford Site in Washington state as well as at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, where one of its minority partners is Jacobs.
An Amentum spokesperson said via Friday email that the company does not comment on market speculation. A Jacobs spokesperson did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
