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BW earnings call analysis

Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc.. AI-assisted transcript summaries focused on management tone, evasions, goalpost moving, catalysts, risks, and data-center exposure.

4 storedJun 10, 2026

Research summary and source transcript

readyJun 10, 2026

Babcock & Wilcox reported a strong Q1 2026 with revenue up 44% YoY to $214.4 million and adjusted EBITDA up 296% to $16.1 million, driven by surging demand for power generation from AI data centers and core parts/services. Bookings jumped to $2.5 billion (1,900% YoY) and backlog reached $2.7 billion (483% YoY), while pipeline exceeded $14 billion (17% QoQ growth). The company is actively reducing debt, having paid $15M of December 2026 bonds and targeting full payoff of the remaining $69M, resulting in net debt of $42.4M (below 1x trailing adjusted EBITDA). While core business momentum is evident, the AI data center opportunity remains largely in pipeline and discussion stages, with minimal current revenue contribution.

Management knows today that the Base Electron project in North Dakota is progressing with boiler manufacturing and turbine fabrication underway, with most construction (civil/mechanical) scheduled for 2027–2028, and that they are in active discussions with hyperscaler and utility customers for additional AI data center projects that could add over $2 billion to the pipeline. They also know that the December 2026 bond maturities ($69M remaining) are on track for timely payoff, which will further reduce leverage. The market likely will not know for 6–24 months whether these discussions convert to bookings, when Base Electron construction ramps revenue significantly (expected in 2027), or if the company can sustain multi-project execution given supply chain constraints on steam turbines and pressure parts.

Demand for baseload power generation (driven by AI data centers, industrial load, and utility recommissioning of coal plants), conversion and upgrade opportunities for existing fossil fuel infrastructure, and execution of large-scale EPC projects like Base Electron.

  • AI data center-driven demand for power generation and pipeline growth
  • Progress and milestones of the Base Electron project in North Dakota
  • Debt reduction and bond buybacks targeting December 2026 maturities
  • Strength and outlook of core parts and services business
  • Ongoing discussions with hyperscaler and utility customers for new projects
  • Technology differentiation via steam boiler-turbine-combustion turbine configurations for increased power density
  • Description of combining steam boilers with combustion turbines to potentially double power output on same footprint
  • Emphasis on Base Electron as a catalyst for securing capacity with manufacturers for future data center projects
  • Repeated references to pipeline exceeding $14 billion and bookings/backlog surging at triple- or quadruple-digit percentages
  • Highlight of net debt falling below 1x trailing adjusted EBITDA as a financial milestone
  • Excitement about CO2 capture potential from data center projects for enhanced oil/methane recovery or sequestration

Management speaks with confidence and specificity, particularly when discussing technical aspects like boiler-turbine-combustion turbine configurations, project milestones, and debt reduction progress. They avoid vague optimism, instead citing concrete timelines (e.g., Base Electron construction in 2027–2028), financial metrics (net debt below 1x EBITDA), and ongoing processes (bond payoffs, customer discussions). While enthusiastic about opportunities, they qualify statements with realism—e.g., acknowledging not all pipeline will close, noting variables in negotiations, and not overpromising on near-term conversion. This balance of detail and restraint enhances credibility.

  • There may be at least one Q&A answer that needs manual review for a possible dodge or lack of numerical follow-through.
  • There may be a benchmark or metric-framing issue worth manual review, especially around adjusted metrics, timelines, or changed expectations.

The company appears to be winning competitively in the niche of providing steam-based power generation solutions for AI data centers, leveraging its boiler technology and ability to offer phased execution (steam first, combustion turbine later). Its focus on utilizing existing technology, securing manufacturer capacity, and emphasizing CO2 capture differentiation suggests a deliberate strategy to lock in early-mover advantage. However, without visibility into competitors’ offerings or win rates, the assessment is based on management’s narrative of strong pipeline growth and customer engagement rather than direct comparative evidence.

  • Revenue: $214.4 million in Q1 2026, up 44% YoY
  • Adjusted EBITDA: $16.1 million in Q1 2026, up 296% YoY
  • Bookings: $2.5 billion in Q1 2026, up >1,900% YoY
  • Backlog: $2.7 billion in Q1 2026, up 483% YoY
  • Pipeline: >$14 billion, up >17% QoQ
  • Net debt: $42.4 million as of March 31, 2026, below 1x trailing adjusted EBITDA
  • December 2026 bonds: $15M paid in Q1 2026, $69M remaining
  • Base Electron revenue contribution: $31 million in Q1 2026
  • Conversion of pipeline discussions into bookings for AI data center projects with hyperscalers or utilities
  • Commencement of major construction phase at Base Electron in 2027 driving significant revenue ramp
  • Successful payoff of remaining $69M in December 2026 bonds, further strengthening balance sheet
  • Sustained strength in parts and services revenue tied to coal plant outages and upgrades
  • Execution of coal-to-gas conversions or environmental upgrades at existing utility plants
  • Pipeline growth may not convert to bookings due to permitting, financing, or customer delays
  • Base Electron construction timeline (2027–2028) delays near-term revenue recognition from large projects
  • Dependence on hyperscaler decisions, which may shift or delay based on power procurement strategies
  • Supply chain constraints for steam turbines and pressure parts could limit ability to execute multiple projects concurrently
  • Stock-based compensation volatility continues to distort GAAP earnings (e.g., $81.8M non-cash warrant impact in Q1)
  • Core business remains tied to coal-fired generation, facing long-term regulatory and transition risks

AI data center demand is a direct and significant driver of current performance, cited as the primary factor behind pipeline (>$14B), bookings ($2.5B), and backlog ($2.7B) growth. Management explicitly states they added over $2B in AI data center opportunities to the pipeline in Q1 and are in active discussions with hyperscaler and utility customers. However, current revenue contribution from data centers is minimal—only $31M attributed to Base Electron in Q1—and the major construction phase is not expected until 2027–2028. The impact is thus largely forward-looking, with today’s strength reflecting anticipation rather than realized execution.

  • What is the expected timeline for initial bookings from current hyperscaler and utility data center discussions?
  • When will Base Electron transition from manufacturing milestones to on-site construction, and what is the projected revenue ramp in 2027 vs. 2028?
  • What is the contracted or expected revenue contribution from AI data center projects in 2026 and 2027, excluding Base Electron?
  • How is the company securing long-lead steam turbine and pressure parts capacity to support multiple concurrent data center projects?
  • What portion of the $14B pipeline is allocated to AI data centers vs. core business (parts/services, upgrades, conversions)?
  • What are the specific milestones or triggers that would prompt a revision to full-year 2026 guidance?

FY2026 Q1 earnings call transcript

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NYSE:BW Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript Generated on 6/6/2026 Ellen | Conference Operator: Good afternoon. Thank you for attending the Babcock and Wilcox Enterprises First Quarter 2026 Conference Call. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Sharon Brooks, B&W's Director of Communications. Thank you. You may proceed, Ms. Brooks. Sharon Brooks | Director of Communications: Thank you, Ellen, and thanks to everyone for joining us on Babcock and Wilcox Enterprises. First Quarter, 2026 Earnings Conference Call. I'm Sharon Brooks, Director of Communications. Joining the call today are Kenny Young, B&W's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Cameron Freimeyer, Chief Financial Officer, to discuss our first quarter results. During this call, certain statements we make will be forward-looking. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those set forth in our Safe Harbor provision for forward-looking statements that can be found at the end of our earnings press release and in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q that was filed with the SEC earlier today. Additionally, except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement. We also provide non-GAAP information regarding certain historical and targeted results to supplement the results provided in accordance with GAAP. This information, which includes our discussion of adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, and net debt, should not be considered superior to or as a substitute for the comparable gap measures. A reconciliation of historical non-gap measures can be found in our first quarter 2026 earnings release published earlier today and in our company overview presentation filed on Form 8K, which is posted on the investor relations section of our website at babcock.com. Please also see our first quarter 2026 earnings release published on May 11th, 2026 for further information regarding our bookings and backlogs. I will now turn the call over to Kenny. Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Thanks, Sharon. Well, good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us on our first quarter 2026 earnings call. We are very pleased to report one of the strongest first quarter performances in recent company history. Babcock and Wilcox continued to see significant growth in the quarter driven by high demand for electrical generation from utility, industrial and AI data center customers. In addition, we also achieved strong operating results supported by continued momentum in our core business and ongoing debt reductions as well. Our quarterly results were highlighted by revenue and adjusted EBITDA that exceeded company and street expectations. Adjusted EBITDA was 16.1 million for the first quarter, which was 296% increase compared to the first quarter of 2025. Our revenues for the quarter came in at 214 million, which is a 44% increase compared to the first quarter of 2025. We also achieved positive adjusted net income from continued operations of $2.2 million after removing $81.8 million of costs associated with increased non-cash warrant and stock appreciation rights valuation, both of which are directly due to the significant stock price increase in the first quarter of 2026. These top line metrics capture the recent tailwinds we've seen across our business and illustrate B&W's growth trajectory moving forward as we continue to capitalize on strong global demand for parts and services, new baseload generation, and behind-the-meter AI data center projects. These recent tailwinds can also be seen in our pipeline, bookings and backlog as well, which saw significant acceleration during the first quarter of 2026. Our total pipeline grew by more than 17% to over $14 billion, including new AI data center opportunities. Our bookings and backlog values continue to surge, fueled by our core business growth and developments of our base Electron project in North Dakota, as we are in further discussions with other hyperscaler customers as well. In the first quarter of 2026, we had bookings of 2.5 billion, which is more than a 1,900% increase compared to the first quarter of 2025. Additionally, our backlog was 2.7 billion in the first quarter of 2026, which is a 483% increase compared to the first quarter of 2025. We believe our results reflect strong global demand for B&W Technologies and combined with the increased demand for power generation gives us a solid foundation for continued growth this year and for many years to come. Our core business, excluding data centers, continue to excel As our parts and services saw elevated demand from the increased operation of baseload generation in North America and beyond, rising energy demand from consumers, industries, and grid-dependent AI data centers is prompting utilities to recondition and recommission coal-fired generation assets to help meet accelerating load growth. Existing coal plants in the US are currently operating at capacity factors of around 50%, highlighting a significant source of underutilized generation capacity available to support expanding electricity needs. At the same time, elevated natural gas prices are driving improved economics of coal-based generation. This has increased utilization and created additional demand for our core business offerings. The rising demand for power across North America serves as a catalyst for B&W's continued growth, positioning us to play a critical role in supporting AI data center expansion and meeting increased baseload generation needs in the years ahead. Our project with Base Electron is progressing favorably as boiler manufacturing and speed turbines move forward. Siemens Energy continues to progress turbine fabrication and other long lead time items such as or their pressure parts are advancing as planned. Most of the constructions, including civil and mechanical, is scheduled for 2027 and 2028, and the impact of AI data center growth on BMW is truly profound, as we added over $2 billion in additional AI data center opportunities in our pipeline from hyperscalers and utility customers. And as I mentioned before, we remain in active discussions with different AI data center customers regarding potential bookings in 2026. In the first quarter of 2026, we paid off $15 million in outstanding bonds that are due in December of 2026. This is the continuation of our bond buybacks, and we expect to fully pay off the remaining $69 million in outstanding December 2026 bonds in a timely fashion. Including these bond repurchases, we have significantly reduced our secured debt and unsecured bonds by 87% in the first quarter of 2026, resulting in net debt of $42.4 million at the end of the quarter. These recent debt payments bring our net debt to below one times our trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA. Our efforts to progress our Bright Loop initiatives are moving forward as we further the commercial development of existing projects and continue working to improve the overall operational effectiveness of these technologies to produce low-cost hydrogen or steam. We are building momentum around the use of chemical looping as a means to convert solid and gas fuels to either hydrogen or steam generation. while simultaneously capturing the CO2 that can be used for enhanced oil or methane recovery and other beneficial uses. The commercial scale demonstration of Brightloop at our Maslin, Ohio project still remains a key priority for BMW as we continue to position the company for expanded growth opportunities in the years ahead. I'll now turn the call over to Cameron to discuss the financial details of the first quarter of 2026. Cameron? Cameron Freimeyer | Chief Financial Officer: Thanks, Kenny. I am pleased to review our first quarter of 2026 financial results, further details of which can be found in the 10Q that was filed with the SEC this morning. Our first quarter of 2026 consolidated revenues were $214.4 million, which is a significant increase compared to a revenue of $148.6 million in the first quarter of 2025. The increase is primarily driven by large project volume, including 31 million from base electron, and the increasing need for electricity from fossil fuels driven by the demand from AI data centers and expanding economies. Our core parts and services continue to perform well, delivering the strongest first quarter revenues in recent history. This development comes as higher demand from consumers, industrials, and AI data centers drive increased coal baseload generation, Continued growth in our parts and services is expected throughout 2026. Our operating loss in the first quarter of 2026 was 1.7 million, which is relatively flat compared to an operating loss of 1.8 million in the first quarter of 2025. Net loss from continuing operations in the first quarter of 2026 was 79.6 million compared to a net loss of 15.6 million in the first quarter of 2025. This increase in net loss is attributed to $81.8 million of non-cash warrants and other stock-related costs that were recorded this quarter due to the increase in our stock performance. Excluding the impact of these stock warrants and other stock-related costs, Deans have reported adjusted net income from continuing operations of $2.2 million. Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations was $16.1 million in the first quarter of 2026 compared to $4 million in the first quarter of 2025. I'll now turn to the balance sheet, cash flow, and liquidity. Total debt on our balance sheet at March 31st, 2026 was $275.9 million, which includes unamortized fees, unamortized gains from the bond swap done in 2025. Excluding these fees, gains, and leases are secured debt and senior notes total $237.2 million, of which $69.1 million is current, which as Kenny stated earlier, we will be paid off within the year. The company had cash, cash improvements, and restricted cash balance of $194.8 million, giving us net debt as of March 31st, 2026 of $42.4 million against our secured debt and senior notes. With that, I'll now turn the call back over to Kenny. Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Thanks, Cameron. Well, in closing, we are encouraged by a strong start to 2026. Our core business continues to see sustained opportunity fueled by the evolving need for power generation and growth in areas such as the AI data center space. B&W remains focused on our objectives and uniquely positioned to capitalize on this current landscape. Our pipeline remains robust, exceeding $14 billion in project opportunities with significant tailwinds bolstered by the growing impact of AI data centers. Meanwhile, our bookings and backlog continue to convert at a strong pace, and we expect that momentum to continue throughout 2026. As we celebrate B&W's 160th year, I would like to recognize our employees around the world, past and present, who have made this a milestone possible. Their expertise, commitment to working safely, and dedication to advancing our technologies and serving our customers set Babcock & Wilcox apart and have established our company as a recognized leader in the industries we serve. Also want to thank our customers and suppliers for their continued support. And with this strong foundation, we're excited about where we're headed and confident in our ability to leverage our leading power and environmental solutions to capitalize on the many opportunities ahead. With that, I'll now turn the call back over to Ellen, who will assist on a few questions. Ellen? Ellen | Conference Operator: Thank you. We now have time to take a few questions. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question for optimum sound quality, and if muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Rob Brown with Lake Street Capital Markets. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Rob Brown | Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets: Good afternoon, and congratulations on all the progress. First question's on the... The expanding pipeline, I think it went up by a couple billion this quarter or since last quarter. What's sort of the environment for the pipeline you're seeing? What are some of the opportunities you're taking a look at? I know the data center is driving a lot of it, but could you give us just some more color on the pipeline growth? Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Sure, yeah. Obviously, the data center aspect of our business is driving quite a bit there, but There are others. We continue, and I'll start with maybe one part here and work back, but we still continue to see a lot of opportunities in growing in either coal to natural gas conversion opportunities, or in some cases, some large coal generation plant upgrades, environmental upgrades to help and assist on those particular areas. So we're seeing... a lot of larger opportunities across the breadth of our portfolio of technologies, both on the core side and environmental side as well. Specifically in the data center opportunities, we are seeing new opportunities emerge, both from utilities as well as hyperscalers that we're in discussions with. that are, you know, in some cases they're looking to power specific data center opportunities. In some cases they're looking to power specific manufacturing or large manufacturing associated with data center opportunities. And so, you know, there's combinations there on the specific end case or end user where that power would be applied. But we're looking and talking to them around utilizing and leveraging you know, BMW's boiler technology. One of the key areas that we're focused on is supporting our customers on the ability to leverage our steam boilers with steam turbine combination, but perhaps combine that with a combustion turbine down the road, where obviously you can gain some efficiencies through that combination of adding the combustion turbine with the steam boiler and the steam turbine generation set on that. But what we believe we also gain is you can actually increase the amount of power output provided on the same size or same square foot basis, if you will. So in other words, you know, if we're putting in 50 megawatt or 100 megawatt boiler by adding the combustion turbine and combining the heat from the turbine into the steam boiler itself, we can actually almost double the size of the output from that particular site. So with very little real estate, we can actually increase the amount of wattage that can come from that particular location. So there's interest in a few of our customers as it relates to those kind of long-term technology aspects. And then, you know, clearly a few customers also want to make sure that they're in position to capture the CO2 at some future point in time, either for enhanced ore recovery or methane recovery or, you know, other uses or even sequestration. But, you know, so as we talk about the data center concept, there's some uniqueness around our ability to get the scheme boiler and turbine out, you know, quicker than a combustion Tad Piper- set but does give them the ability to combine the combustion turbine at a later date in order to enhance that particular side or increase the. Tad Piper- The overall productivity or output from an electrical generation standpoint and that that's you know, an attractive or value proposition for our customers so we're looking at all of that. Rob Brown | Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets: Okay, great. Then the base Electron project, you get $31 million in the quarter. How do you see that kind of laying out? Is it really ramped significantly starting next year, or do you get a decent amount of revenue yet this year? Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: We'll get more revenue this year. I mean, clearly the bigger ramp, obviously, as mentioned, is when we get into the full construction aspect on site. So not only civil and the early ground works and all of that, but more when we're putting up steel, starting to do the steel production of the site itself. That's when there is a very significant ramp on revenue. So we'll see that as we go into next year there. But they'll continue to produce revenue this year for base electron as we complete different milestones on the manufacturing side of the project itself and complete some of the onsite preparation work we need to do for engineering and other aspects for the civil construction capabilities and get the site prepped for the actual steel manufacturing itself. So there are different milestones involved in those contracts. So we'll still see further revenue this year, but yeah, the huge amounts will start to impact next year. Rob Brown | Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets: Okay, thank you. I'll turn it over. Ellen | Conference Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Gramp with Northland Capital Market. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Jeff Gramp | Analyst, Northland Capital Markets: Evening, Beth. Say, Kenny, for some of these projects, as I recall on the last earnings call a couple months back, it sounded like there were a couple of projects that were in, I guess, fairly serious discussions. I know you're relatively limited on what you can say on the call, but just kind of wondering on those specific projects or any others that have kind of come up on the priority list over the last couple of months, you know, what kind of the latest and greatest is in terms of the state of those conversations and the outlook there. Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Thanks. Yeah, no, we still progress on those discussions with two or three different customers out there to determine, you know, obviously the best way to move forward with them on that. I think, yeah, If we get one or so across the goal line, it'll clearly be a project where we'll sign some sort of MOU or LNTP or something, obviously, to start, and then allow us to get everything set up to move into the full notice to proceed at a later date. So similar to what we do just about on every big project that BMW's ever been involved in. on that front. But those discussions still continue and working through a number of different scenarios. As typical on these kind of projects, there's a lot of different variables that the end user and customers are trying to accomplish, either be from a technology standpoint, end user standpoint, permitting standpoint, location, geography, so on and so forth. A lot of things kind of ebb and flow as we enter into these discussions, but they continue, and we're hopeful that we can move one across the goal line. Jeff Gramp | Analyst, Northland Capital Markets: Got it. Appreciate that. For my follow-up, to the extent you get another one or two projects under the belt here that you ultimately can book, are there any investments or things along that kind of notion that BW may look to make to ensure it can deliver on perhaps an accelerated flight of projects, or do you feel that the companies and the supply chains are appropriately situated to deliver on multiple projects running concurrently? Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, no, we feel good about the current supply chain that we've established. Obviously, around the base electron project, we use that in order to establish a broader aspect around potential on other data center projects so that we could, you know, begin to secure a little bit of capacity there around that. I think, you know, each one of these will be a little bit nuanced. The size of the boilers and the size of the turbines will vary. You know, they'll be, as we've always talked about, we want to as much as possible use and leverage existing technology that BMW has put in the marketplace. Same on the turbine side of the equation. But, you know, there will be, because there's a need to have different size boilers used, right? You know, for base electron, we're using the 300 megawatt boilers. You know, in other cases, we're looking at, you know, smaller. In some cases, we're actually looking at even bigger. So the positive news on that, is that we have different manufacturers lined up to be able to accept, you know, depending on the size of the boiler out there. And so where we've been proactive on is to make sure as we move forward into these opportunities that the manufacturers are kind of, if you will, sitting side by side with us as it relates to these so that we can ensure that we've got the capacity to make those happen out there. So we feel good about where we are right now. You know, in the future, Obviously, having security on the steam turbine aspect of it for us and some of the pressure parts is going to be crucial as we get past one or two of these additional projects as we move along. We'll have to make sure that we keep in mind how we can secure that capacity to continue to move forward. But at the moment, we feel pretty good about our position right now. Jeff Gramp | Analyst, Northland Capital Markets: Got it. I appreciate all the details. I'll turn it back. Thank you. Thank you. Ellen | Conference Operator: Your next question comes from Aaron Spichala with Craig Hallam. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Aaron Spichala | Analyst, Craig Hallam: Yeah, good afternoon, Kenny and Cameron. Thanks for taking the questions. Maybe first for me on just guidance, you know, with a better start to the year. And it sounds like, you know, confidence in activity levels. Can you just talk to, you know, visibility and the guidance and maybe cadence throughout the year? Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, no, good question. Obviously, we kept the guidance where we are right now, 100%, just as we try to figure out how much we can shift in either into construction or pull forward some of the manufacturing and other aspects around these projects that we're involved in. Once we have a better handle on that here in the coming months, then we'll relook at the guidance we put out in the marketplace, and we'll see how that goes. But You know, I think the positive news is there's, you know, there's definitely potential for upside related to our guidance that exists today. And we're going to, you know, keep an eye on how things progress this year and see where it goes. You know, obviously, if it doesn't hit this year, then it just goes into next year. So, you know, either way, it's a good position for B&W to be in. But, you know, we'll keep an eye on that and circle back around on that at a later date. Aaron Spichala | Analyst, Craig Hallam: right understood and then you know within the guide for this year is there a way to think about you know kind of that base you know parts and services business what what kind of contribution looks like there and just as we think about kind of growth uh in the coming years you obviously have you know the big projects and some of these coal to gas conversions but just what's kind of that base run rate and it seems like that business is still very much uh healthy Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, no, obviously our parts and services, as we mentioned, had a significantly strong first quarter, one of its best from a first quarter standpoint in recent history. Usually, as you know, Q1 is a little low for us from our parts and services. Q2, maybe about the same, slightly better. But Q3, Q4 is where we really pick up on that due to the outages and other aspects. the demand we're seeing still is still strong out there for that business. We don't see that changing as it goes into the rest of the year. We have pretty good visibility into the outages that are targeted to come later this year to do maybe a significant aspect, not necessarily a gas or coal to gas conversion, but a broader upgrade or something, maybe environmental aspects as well, too, on these coal plants. I think the uniqueness is that on the coal plants that they're being used, obviously, more and more and more, and they have capacity to be used even further than they are today. As a result of that, you're seeing more investment put into these coal plants than we've seen in the past because they are running a lot longer and and the need for them to run now is also increasing so um a lot of utilities a lot of our customers are investing more into these plants uh to ensure the longevity um for the you know obviously base load generation so it's um it's a good place for us to be in um right now and excited about that and you know we're taking a quarter of a time but you know it's uh it's it's right now we see a very strong outlook on the parts and services and anticipate that continuing right now for the foreseeable future. I don't, you know, the concept of the utilization on this, and that's the good news about it. These aren't just, you know, one-off kind of parts, aspects. This is based on, you know, continuation of these plants running. We don't see that slowing down anytime soon. Aaron Spichala | Analyst, Craig Hallam: Right. Okay. Thank you for the color in that. And then just maybe, you know, almost housekeeping on the pipeline expansion to $14 billion to see, You had kind of talked about a data center power gen pipeline of three to five billion plus, I think, is most of that increase, you know, just driven, you know, the two billion kind of driven by an increase in that pipeline or anything else to highlight? Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, I mean, the data centers obviously have a large impact just because of the size, you know, consideration of those. There are a few that we're talking to that are in the, you know, 500 megawatts you know, to start with, there's a couple that are in the 300 megawatt range, but, you know, there are some that are in the, you know, one to two gigawatt range. So there's, you know, there is a big demand for that as the data centers continue to grow. And, you know, obviously we're not going to book all that business, but the opportunities are wide across, you know, that size range. So, you know, when you're talking about a one gigawatt plant or higher, you know, that's a significant, TAB, Mark McIntyre, Project for us and so obviously has you know solid revenue ramifications if we get that book and across the goal line, so you know, overall, the pipeline out there is reflective of that and we you know it's been able to allow us to grow it. um quite a bit but um and the opportunities are you know still continue to evolve and come but you know keep in mind that the pipeline is projects where we think will close um not necessarily 100 with us but we think we'll close within the next three years there's there's obviously opportunities that are outside that three-year window um you know that would increase the size of that but we don't we don't talk about the opportunities but just to give you some idea Sharon Brooks | Director of Communications: pipeline for that very definition reason right right that makes sense um appreciate the color i'll turn it over we have reached the end of the q a session i will now turn the call back to sharon brooks for closing remarks thank you for joining us that concludes our conference call a replay will be available for a limited time on our website later today jsPDF 3.0.3 D:20260606090019-00'00'

Research summary and source transcript

readyJun 10, 2026

Babcock & Wilcox has significantly strengthened its position in the power generation market through a $2.4 billion contract with Base Electron for AI data center power, which has expanded its pipeline to over $12 billion and driven a substantial increase in backlog to $2.8 billion (up 470% YoY). The company is leveraging its existing boiler and steam turbine technology to meet rising baseload power demand from both traditional coal generation and AI-driven data center growth, while simultaneously reducing net debt by $217.3 million to $119.7 million. However, the sustainability of this growth depends on converting pipeline to backlog and executing large-scale, long-cycle projects amid working capital demands.

Management knows today that the Base Electron project has evolved from a $1.4 billion limited notice to proceed to a firm $2.4 billion fixed-price contract for boilers and steam turbines, with the remainder cost-plus, and that Applied Digital is backstopping performance — details that imply near-term revenue visibility and cost certainty not yet reflected in market expectations. They also know that real-time discussions with additional data center customers (hyperscalers, utilities, developers) are yielding mature-stage opportunities in the 500 MW to 2 GW range, with potential for another 1.2 GW from Base Electron, which could meaningfully expand the $12+ billion pipeline. These project-specific commercial advances, including labor readiness with the Boilermaker Union and turbine capacity planning with Siemens, represent concrete steps toward conversion that the market will likely only recognize over the next 6–24 months as construction milestones are met and revenue recognition begins.

The business is driven by: (1) demand for baseload power generation from coal plant reconditioning and upgrades due to rising natural gas prices, (2) growth in parts and services revenue from increased operation of existing generation assets, and (3) large-scale EPC projects for AI data center power delivery using proprietary boiler and steam turbine technology.

  • Growth in parts and services revenue (17% YoY) driven by coal generation utilization
  • Expansion of AI data center opportunities via Base Electron and other developer discussions
  • Increasing backlog ($2.8B, up 470% YoY) and pipeline (>$12B, up ~20% YoY)
  • Debt reduction and improved liquidity (net debt down $217.3M to $119.7M)
  • Project execution readiness: labor force (Boilermakers), turbine capacity (Siemens), modular boiler options
  • Use of previously engineered technology to accelerate project timelines by up to a year
  • Description of the Base Electron contract as having a 'profound impact' and enabling '3 to 5 billion in additional AI data center opportunities'
  • Emphasis on real-time discussions with additional data center customers and potential for further announcements 'in the coming weeks'
  • Highlight of using previously designed 300 MW boilers to eliminate months of development work and accelerate delivery
  • Excitement about labor readiness with Boilermaker Union and turbine capacity expansion with Siemens
  • Pride in 160-year history and positioning at the forefront of steam power innovation

Management exhibits a confident, direct, and credible tone, grounding optimism in specific, verifiable actions: site visits underway, boiler manufacturing started, turbine fabrication in progress, labor force readiness with unions, and clear contract structures (fixed price vs. cost-plus). They avoid vague claims by citing concrete milestones (e.g., 'work scheduled to commence later this year', 'most construction in 2027 and 2028') and acknowledge variability in timelines and costs where appropriate (e.g., revenue recognition tied to site costs). Their excitement is tied to executable steps rather than aspirational visions, and they consistently reference ongoing efforts (e.g., 'discussions with Siemens', 'meetings over the next few weeks') that suggest operational focus over hype.

  • There may be at least one Q&A answer that needs manual review for a possible dodge or lack of numerical follow-through.
  • There may be a benchmark or metric-framing issue worth manual review, especially around adjusted metrics, timelines, or changed expectations.

Babcock & Wilcox appears to be winning competitively in the niche of rapid-deployment baseload power generation for AI data centers, leveraging its legacy boiler and steam turbine technology to offer faster turnkey solutions than new-build combustion turbine projects. The company is differentiating itself by using previously engineered designs to eliminate months of development work, securing partnerships with Siemens and the Boilermaker Union for scalability, and capturing inbound interest from hyperscalers and utilities due to validated execution capability. While the broader power generation market remains competitive, B&W has established a distinct advantage in speed-to-power for large-scale steam-based systems, positioning it as a preferred partner for utilities and developers seeking reliable, grid-connected power for AI infrastructure.

  • 2025 consolidated revenue: $587.7 million (up modestly from $581 million in 2024)
  • 2025 adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations: $43.7 million (up from $21.2 million in 2024)
  • 2026 adjusted EBITDA target range: $80–100 million (increased from prior guidance)
  • Continuing operations backlog at end of 2025: $2.8 billion (up 470% vs. end of 2024)
  • Pipeline of project opportunities: over $12 billion (up roughly 20% in 2025 despite $2.4B conversion to backlog)
  • Net debt at end of 2025: $119.7 million (down $217.3 million from $337 million at end of 2024)
  • Base Electron contract value: $2.4 billion (with ~$430M fixed price for boilers and turbines, remainder cost-plus)
  • Q4 2025 adjusted EBITDA: 53% higher than Q4 2024; operating income up 373% YoY
  • Conversion of additional pipeline opportunities to backlog, particularly the potential second 1.2 GW project from Base Electron
  • On-site construction commencement for the Base Electron project later in 2026, with bulk of work in 2027–2028
  • Finalization of discussions with hyperscalers, utilities, or developers for new AI data center power projects
  • Continued debt paydown and improvement in net debt position through 2026
  • Increased utilization of coal-fired generation due to DOE and National Energy Dominance Council initiatives
  • Successful execution of modular boiler approach for faster deployment in future projects
  • Working capital strain from large, long-cycle EPC projects despite cost-plus and fixed-price mix
  • Dependence on timely delivery of steam turbines from Siemens and other manufacturers to maintain schedule
  • Risk that pipeline (>$12B) fails to convert to backlog due to financing, permitting, or customer delays
  • Exposure to coal market volatility and regulatory shifts despite current tailwinds from gas prices and policy
  • Potential for cost overruns on cost-plus portions of large contracts despite backstop by Applied Digital
  • Execution risk in scaling labor force (via Boilermakers) and manufacturing capacity across multiple concurrent projects

The company has direct and significant exposure to AI/data center growth through its $2.4 billion Base Electron contract, which will deliver 1.2 GW of power specifically for AI factory campuses, and through an expanding pipeline of similar projects with hyperscalers, utilities, and developers. Management explicitly states that the Base Electron deal has added '3 to 5 billion in additional AI data center opportunities' to their portfolio and that they are in 'real-time discussions' with additional data center customers. The impact is not speculative — it is driven by a booked contract, active site work, and advanced-stage negotiations — though the full financial contribution will be realized over the 2027–2028 construction period. There is no indication that data center demand is merely indirect or incidental; it is a core pillar of the updated growth strategy.

  • What is the expected quarterly revenue recognition profile for the Base Electron project starting in late 2026, and how will it affect 2026 and 2027 adjusted EBITDA?
  • What specific milestones must be met for the potential second 1.2 GW Base Electron project to move from discussion to backlog, and what is the anticipated timeline?
  • How is working capital being managed for the Base Electron project given the mix of fixed-price ($430M) and cost-plus components, and what is the expected cash flow impact during construction?
  • What portion of the $12+ billion pipeline is in active negotiation versus early-stage discussion, and what is the historical conversion rate from pipeline to backlog for similar projects?
  • How sensitive is the 2026–2028 financial outlook to delays in steam turbine delivery from Siemens or other turbine partners?
  • What is the expected gross margin profile for the Base Electron contract and other AI data center projects compared to the core parts and services business?
  • Are there any contingent liabilities or performance guarantees beyond the Applied Digital backstop that could affect B&W financially if Base Electron fails to perform?
  • How is the company addressing potential bottlenecks in boiler pressure part manufacturing across its U.S., Central Asian, and Southeast Asian facilities to support multiple concurrent projects?

FY2025 Q4 earnings call transcript

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NYSE:BW Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript Generated on 6/6/2026 Tamiya | Conference Call Operator: Good afternoon, thank you for attending the Babcock and Wilcox Enterprises fourth quarter and full year 2025 conference call. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Sharon Brooks, B&W's Director of Communications. Thank you. You may proceed, Ms. Brooks. Sharon Brooks | Director of Communications: Thank you, Tamiya. And thanks to everyone for joining us on Babcock and Wilcox Enterprises fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings conference call. I'm Sharon Brooks, Director of Communications. Joining the call today are Kenny Young, B&W's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Cameron Freymeier, Chief Financial Officer, to discuss our fourth quarter and four-year results. During this call, certain statements we make will be forward-looking. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those set forth in our Safe Harbor provision for forward-looking statements that can be found at the end of our earnings press release published on March 4, 2026, and in our annual report on Form 10-K that has been filed with the SEC today. Additionally, except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement. We also provide non-GAAP information regarding certain of our historical and targeted results to supplement the results provided in accordance with GAAP. This information should not be considered superior to or as a substitute for the comparable GAAP measures. A reconciliation of historical non-GAAP measures can be found in our fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings release published on March 4, 2026, and in our company overview presentation filed on Form 8K, which is posted on the investor relations section of our website at babcock.com. I will now turn the call over to Kenny. Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Thanks, Sharon. Well, good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings call. Over the past year, Babcock & Wilcox has seen significant growth due to higher demand in electrical generation. Our company has reached a new pinnacle, which combined with recent announcements allows us to increase our 2026 adjusted EBITDA target range to between 80 and 100 million. Our core business, excluding data centers, continued to grow as our parts and services saw elevated demand from the increased operation of baseload generation in North America and beyond. As energy needs continue to expand from consumers, industries, and data centers that utilize grid power, coal plants are being reconditioned and reengaged by utilities to help meet that accelerating demand. Existing coal plants in the U.S. have been operating at less than 50%, and these power plants have untapped capacity that is starting to be used to support the increased power demand. As natural gas prices climb, the cost of coal operations has become more attractive, which translates into greater use of parts and services, as well as upgrades and enhancements. all of which increased demand for our core business. Our parts and services revenues grew by over 17% in 2025, and we saw growth continuing in 2026 as well. As a reminder, the majority of our parts, services, and small upgrade revenues are not in our backlog as the book to bill cycle is much quicker than longer term projects. The increasing demand for power in North America serves as a catalyst for B&W's continued growth, positioning us to play a pivotal role in supporting AI data center expansion and increased baseload generation needs in the years ahead. Our recent announcement of a full notice or full approval to proceed on our project with base electron is an exciting step forward into the AI data center space. Our agreement with Base Electron, backed by Applied Digital, is valued at $2.4 billion and is intended to deliver 1.2 gigawatts of electricity that will be directly connected to the grid in support of AI factory campuses. Combining steam turbines with our previously designed and engineered 300 megawatt boilers enables us to eliminate months of initial development work. that is required with typical new boiler projects. Overall, this can help accelerate a standard delivery schedule by up to a year. Site visits are now underway, and we've started the boiler manufacturing process. Siemens Energy has started the fabrication process of the turbines, and work is scheduled to commence at the site later this year with most of the construction, including civil and mechanical, scheduled for 2027 and 2028. We are also working closely with the Boilermaker Union to ready the labor force needed at peak periods throughout this project. Currently, just over $430 million of this contract is fixed price, specifically the boilers and the steam turbines, while the remaining work is covered under a cost-plus approach. Applied Digital is backstopping the contract with a guarantee of full and timely performance of all of Base Electron's obligations. Base Electron has also indicated its interest in purchasing another 1.2 gigawatts of power from B&W, possibly at a different location. The impact of this contract on B&W is truly profound. And we have now added 3 to 5 billion in additional AI data center opportunities to our portfolio. We believe our proven technologies are well positioned to deliver the reliable, high-capacity power generation that is required to meet the growing demands of power grid today. Furthermore, we are in real-time discussions with additional data center customers around specific opportunities. A few of these are actively underway right now, and we hope to be able to issue further announcements and details in the coming weeks. These potential projects with other developers, hyperscalers, and utilities, if booked, will also utilize B&W boiler designs in combination with steam turbines. As a result, and even after converting $2.4 billion of our pipeline to backlog, These new opportunities are now reflected in our current pipeline of over $12 billion. Additionally, we are seeing increased utilization of coal-fired power generation, along with upgrades and enhancements driven by initiatives from the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Energy Dominance Council, combined with rising demand for fossil fuel-based power generation and extended lead times for combustion turbines, These dynamics highlight our ability to deliver solutions more quickly by leveraging our proven steam generation technologies. We are now in early discussions regarding the potential of new power generation utilizing coal technologies and are excited to see this development moving forward for utilities, coal is an offset to higher natural gas prices. And either through upgrades or new build, we see the reliance on coal technologies continuing here in the US with additional facilities being added in Asia as well. Our backlog continues to benefit from this increased demand for coal and power generation, as well as the tailwinds from AI data center growth. In total, we saw our continuing operations backlog rise to 2.8 billion, which is a 470% increase compared to the end of 2024. Our pipeline of over 12 billion grew by roughly 20% in 2025, even with the conversion of this recent project to backlog. And we do see continued pathways for growth moving forward into 2026. During the fourth quarter of 2025, We delivered strong operating results while displaying continued core business momentum. Revenue, operating income, and adjusted EBITDA all significantly outperformed company and consensus expectations for the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was 53% higher compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, and operating income was up 373% when compared to the same period of 2024. These results during the quarter reflect the strong demand for our diverse portfolio of technologies and demonstrate B&W's evolution and strategic advancements over the past year. In recent months, we fully paid off the remaining outstanding bonds due in February 2026 and expect to fully pay off the remaining outstanding December 2026 bonds in a timely fashion. These bond payments pair with the continued pay down of our overall debt levels. Across 2025, we achieved a substantial reduction of our debt on our balance sheet, resulting in a net debt of $119.7 million at the end of 2025, which is a $217.3 million improvement compared to the net debt of $337 million at the end of 2024. Our Bright Loop advancements continue to evolve behind the scenes, including our Massillon and Wyoming projects. We are building momentum around the use of chemical looping as a means to convert solid and gas fuels to either hydrogen or steam generation, while simultaneously capturing the CO2 that can be used for enhanced oil or methane recovery, as well as other beneficial uses. The commercial demonstration of Brightloop at Massillon remains an important milestone for B&W as we continue to position the company for additional growth opportunities in the future. I'll now turn the call over to Cameron, who will discuss our full-year 2025 results. Cameron? Cameron Freymeier | Chief Financial Officer: Thanks, Kenny. I am pleased to review our full-year 2025 financial results, further details of which can be found in the 10-K that was filed with the SEC this afternoon. Our 2025 consolidated revenues were 587.7 million, which was a modest increase compared to the revenue of 581 million in 2024. Our core parts and services continued to excel across 2025, increasing revenues 17%, outperforming expectations due to higher coal generation usage and growing base load demand in North America. Continued growth in our parts and service is expected throughout 2026. Our operating income in 2025 was 20.7 million, which was an improvement compared to an operating loss of 6.3 million in 2024. Loss from continuing operations in 2025 was 32.8 million, compared to a loss of 104.3 million in 2024. And our loss per share from continuing operations was 45 cents in 2025, compared to a loss per share of $1.30 in 2024. Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations was 43.7 million, compared to $21.2 million in 2024. As Kenny stated earlier, we have announced our full year of 2026 adjusted EBITDA target range is between $80 to $100 million. I'll now turn to our balance sheet, cash flow, and liquidity. Total debt at December 31st, 2025 was $321.1 million, which includes unamortized fees and unamortized gains from our bond swap earlier this year. Our current debt consists of 83.9 million of December 2026 bonds, which, as Kenny stated earlier, will be paid off within the year, and 151 million of bonds due in 2030, or 129.5 million of bonds when unamortized fees and unamortized gains are excluded. The company had cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash balance of 201.4 million giving us a net debt as of December 31st, 2025 of 119.7 million or 79.7 million when excluding unamortized gains, fees, as well as leases. As Kenny previously mentioned, we delivered a significant year-over-year improvement in our net debt, reducing it by 217.3 million compared to December 31st, 2024. Additionally, in December of 2025, BMW paid off outstanding bonds due in February 2026 and the remaining outstanding December 2026 bonds will be paid off this year. With that, I will now turn the call back over to Kenny. Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Thanks, Cameron. Well, we are excited about our growing opportunities to expand into power generation for the rapidly evolving AI data center space. And we remain focused on executing against our strategic plan. We remain uniquely positioned to capitalize on the growing global demand for baseload electrical generation, and our pipeline remains robust, exceeding $12 billion in project opportunities with significant tailwinds bolstered by the growing impact of AI data centers. We anticipate prospects for the new bookings and further strong financial performance throughout 2026. I would like to once again recognize the hard work and expertise of our employees around the world who help us meet our customers' needs today and further strengthen our ability to support the energy needs of the future. We would also like to recognize and thank our vendors and manufacturers around the world who are working to meet the requirements of our initial data center project and, importantly, are working closely with us to ensure timely delivery on the next project once booked. These manufacturers are working to ensure we have the necessary resources and delivery schedules to meet our customer demands. We continue to be enthusiastic about the path forward and expect 2026 to be a strong operational year for B&W with resilient global demand for our technologies driving sustained growth in the quarters ahead. In closing, B&W is also celebrating its 160th year, and it's a good time to reflect on some of the milestones and firsts that have defined our company history. from playing a leading role in the global industrial revolution of the 19th century to helping make universal electrification from coal and natural gas possible to developing some of the world's most efficient and effective environmental emissions control, renewable energy, and hydrogen generation and carbon capture technologies. B&W has constantly been at the forefront of innovation. But it all began with creating steam for power, and BMW boilers and steam generation technologies have contributed to more than 400 gigawatts of total electrical capacity worldwide. We're proud of our history, and we're excited about what lies ahead for our company. And with that, I'll now turn the call back over to Mia, who will help us with a few questions. Mia? Tamiya | Conference Call Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. The first question comes from Aaron Spichala with Craig Hallam. You may proceed. Aaron Spichala | Analyst, Craig Hallum: Yeah. Hi, Kenny and Cameron. Thanks for taking the questions. Tamiya | Conference Call Operator: Hi, Aaron. Aaron Spichala | Analyst, Craig Hallum: You know, maybe first on, hi. Maybe first for us, just on the, you know, the base electron project, you know, moving to 2.4 billion, can you just talk about the dynamics there versus the limited notice? And then just on the project, Any other color on timeline? You know, you talked a little bit about some of the milestones, but maybe just a little bit more detail there. And then, you know, timing of kind of working capital needs and cash flows on your end. Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Sure. Let me see if I can capture that. So to back up, as you indicated, obviously, we announced the limited notice to proceed last November, I believe. for $1.4 billion on the project. Typical in large projects, until we get to the final notice to proceed, there's always variability on the exact scope and final amounts. of the project at that time. So that's why we'd like to take that approach. So as we were working through the final scope on the project, the final terms and conditions of the contract, we mentioned the firm versus cost plus scenarios on it. We were able then to complete the contract plus the final scope and those negotiations, which led us then to the $2.4 billion announcement for the um the gigawatts being provided so it's kind of normal evolution from a a limited notice to proceed the final notice to proceed and there's some variability always in the dollar amounts depending on that final scope and as well as contract terms and conditions um in that regard so um i think that was one question the the other on um kind of the milestones of what's happening as you know mentioned in the remarks uh we're beginning you know the site visits are underway um On that particular piece, we have the manufacturing processes going at various locations around the world, both from a turbine standpoint and the processes for the boiler pressure parts construction at various locations around the world. and obviously very confident in meeting the schedule and the timelines for delivery. So, you know, some of the variability right now is waiting to get some specific dates on when construction on site will begin. Obviously, we're working through those. There's details behind the scenes on that, but we're anticipating, you know, some work beginning this year at this point in time, and then obviously a bulk of this will move into 2027. and 2028 once we are well into the construction phase of this standpoint. So I think the exciting aspect is, you know, working obviously with our manufacturers as well as with Siemens on the turbines, along with the boilermakers in the union, obviously getting their labor force ready. You know, we do feel confident that we can meet those timeframes and the fact that we're using Previously engineered boilers eliminates a significant amount of timeframes in this project schedule, so it gives us confidence in being able to complete this on time. Aaron Spichala | Analyst, Craig Hallum: Good. Thanks for that. And then on the guidance increase, can you maybe just talk to visibility into that and maybe cadence throughout the year and then any expected contribution on the power generation project? Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, so obviously there's a little bit baked in from the contribution of the power project into that increase, for sure. On that, it's, again, variable until we know more specifically when we get costs to the site. And that's obviously where our revenue recognition is based on costs, as you know. So the key component there is that we're able to drive costs to the project on the site. So we wanted to increase, obviously, inclusive of that, and there's some elevated increases that we're seeing just in some of the general parts services and upgrades and usage around some of the coal and natural gas services. projects that were involved in as well, too. So, you know, the combinations of those gave us the confidence to increase that. We also, I think, extended the range a little bit, you know, 80 to 100 million because of some of the variability when we specifically start some of the construction, you know, on site as it relates to the base electron contract. Cameron Freymeier | Chief Financial Officer: Yeah, Aaron, and I think typically you'll see kind of the the growth and adjusted even our revenue throughout the year. Yeah, there's the cyclical aspect. It'll stuff up each quarter. Aaron Spichala | Analyst, Craig Hallum: Okay. Okay. And then maybe one last one just on that, you know, coal to gas project. Can you maybe give an update there, you know, how far you are into that project timeline to finish that up? And then just any other thoughts on the pipeline for those types of opportunities as well? Cameron Freymeier | Chief Financial Officer: Yeah, so as of right now, we're, you know, we're on schedule, Aaron. I think we're, you know, we'll finish up really bulk of the 27 or, yeah, 26 and then going to 27. So, no issues there. Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: And on the pipeline side, we've got other, not that large, but there's other conversion projects that we're in discussions on as it relates to that. You know, again, interestingly enough, because some of the developments that are coming out of Capitol Hill, You know, in some of the recent remarks by President Trump, there's, you know, some mandates and some of the utilities are looking at extending coal power generation further. Some of that due to, as I mentioned in the remarks, on the higher price of natural gas, right? So they're extending out some of the coal plants to last longer. So some of the natural gas conversions, or a few of them, are shifting further. out in in later years but in the meantime some of those plants now are going through you know a little bit higher or increased upgrades or parts replacements to continue operating those in the as efficiently as possible so it you know both help us obviously on those but we're seeing a little of that impact as well too great um thank you for taking the questions i'll turn it over yeah thanks aaron Tamiya | Conference Call Operator: Thank you. Next comes from Rob Brown with Lake Street Capital Markets. You may proceed. Rob Brown | Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets: Good afternoon. Congratulations on all the progress. I just wanted to dig into the pipeline a little more. You said you had a potential second project from Base Electron and then several other AI data center projects. Could you give us a sense of maybe the sizing of the pipeline-type projects and maybe the timeline of those projects? Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, so we're, you know, as mentioned, obviously Base Electron has expressed interest in an additional, you know, 1 gigawatt or 1.2 gigawatt worth of power on that. We are also, you know, in discussions, you know, I would say, again, as I mentioned in the comments, real-time discussions with one or two other projects. outside of base electron and applied that are looking at the similar solution. The boiler size may vary. There's a project or two looking at smaller boilers, but it's still in the one gigawatt range. So most of the data center projects usually are, when we have discussions, one or two could be in the 500 megawatt range. Most are in the one to two gigawatt range when we get into discussions about the power solutions. Our specific scope on some of those will vary a little bit. In some cases, it'll be a little more turnkey like we're doing at Base Electron. Others we're in discussions on right now would be more for us to provide the boiler and the steam turbines. but under a different EPC structure. So there are different levels of scope that we're involved in, but from an overall size standpoint, most of those discussions are in a very similar size, both in the gigawatt aspect. Some are different scope on a total project basis, so they'll have different pricing elements. But you can kind of get a sense of the general project impact that would come from these additional projects if we can get them booked. Rob Brown | Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets: Okay, great. And then in terms of capacity to do these, it sounds like there's a total of two to three projects that are in the works. What's sort of the ability to do or the capacity to take that work on? Or does it need to spread out over time? Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, no, great question. So we are, as I mentioned or tried to mention in the remarks, we are working closely with Siemens and other turbine companies. working with them closely. We've got several meetings coming up over the next few weeks, but trying to establish increased capacity on the steam turbine side of this. So, again, either through Siemens and that relationship or, you know, depending on size with one or two other turbine companies around the world. You know, the great aspect around using steam turbines versus combustion turbines is that there's, especially when we get to smaller turbines, there is more manufacturers and a little bit better excess capacity that we can leverage within the manufacturing process on that side. So when we negotiated the first set of turbines with Siemens, we were also working with them and continue to do so to identify places where we can leverage and get to increased capacity with them to move on to another four possible steam turbines with Siemens. also discussions with others out there to ensure that we have the capacity to meet those data center project needs. We've also taken that same approach on the boiler pressure part manufacturing side, both with steel aspects here in the U.S., fabrication here in the U.S., but also with our manufacturing partners and companies and our own manufacturing facilities that we have, but also our partner manufacturing facilities that we have in Central Asia and Southeast Asia to make sure that we have the right resources and everything lined up on those raw materials from various components on steel pressure parts to be able to make the manufacturing schedules and have those shipped. We're looking at one case where we're looking for the possibility to ship a modular boiler approach through obviously a water access shipping standpoint, but that can be delivered directly to site on one of the opportunities that we're in discussions on. Instead of a stick build on site, it would be more of a modular aspect on site. And by spreading those across different manufacturers because they're different sized boilers and different sized turbines, we have confidence in having the capacity and the manufacturing to meet these next two or three projects that we're in discussions on as well. On top of that, a critical component is the labor force. And the Boilermakers, who we have a really good relationship with, has been instrumental in helping us prep and prepare for these particular project sites on the readiness of a labor force and availability as we look down the road to have these construction schedules outlined and obviously eventually move under contract. So we're looking at it both on that side. And then, of course, in B&W internally, as it relates to having the right team aspects ready to go to project manage these from the procurement phase all the way to the construction phase, to the delivery phase, to the on-site phase, to the commissioning and obviously the project completion phase as well. The good news about this, and I think that's where it helps to show, is that BW is not actually engineering new boilers here. So the pressure usually on scope for us is if we have to actually extend beyond the engineering resources that we have, which we're slowly adding to that. But we don't have an immediate impact on those engineering resources because we're leveraging previously designed boilers. And all of those things combine to give us the confidence and the capacity to deliver these. Rob Brown | Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets: Okay, thanks for that comprehensive overview. I'll turn it over. Thanks. Tamiya | Conference Call Operator: Thank you. The following comes from Jeff Grant with Northland Capital. You may proceed. Jeff Grant | Analyst, Northland Capital: Good evening, guys. Thanks for the time. Hey, Jeff. Kenny, on your prepared remarks, it sounded like some of these conversations on some of these other projects are fairly mature, and I guess just wanted to verify if that's a fair read here. I don't know if it's appropriate to try to get you to quote, you know, how many months behind maybe relative to the base electron kind of progression. But it sounds like some of these conversations are pretty far down the path, but want to make sure we have appropriately set our expectations regarding timing. Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, no, good question. Obviously, we don't want to get too out in front and negotiate contracts in the public space. But, you know, we are in discussions. I think like most projects for us, right, there would be an evolution where we would If we do get it booked or announced, we would enter into some sort of an initial phase, whether that's a limited notice to proceed or some other form of agreement that would give us the ability to map out all of the site elements at this specific location on this other opportunity. the delivery schedules, you know, the layout aspects of it, and it allows them also then to use our technologies and various permits and other aspects around the project while we ready the full manufacturing process for those specific boilers and turbines on that front. So we are in discussions there. You know, I hate to put a time frame on those. You know, hopefully we can get to you know, at least an initial discussion or announcement in the next several weeks, but we'll, you know, we'll just have to see how that goes. But we are in that level of discussion with one or two other opportunities at the moment. Jeff Grant | Analyst, Northland Capital: That's great to hear. And for my follow-up, I'm just kind of curious, as you guys are kind of seeing things play out, how much of a catalyst have some of these announcements been for you guys with respect to the APLD project? Do you feel the market participants were generally already aware of what you guys bring to the table, and so it didn't really bring any new people to the fold, or did that announcement and some of the progress you guys have had provide some kind of, I don't know, validation that, you know, this is a real solution that people can look to to address power capacity issues? Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, for sure. One or two of the projects that we're contemplating, you know, that potential, immediate potential here were also, you know, underway in parallel with the discussions with Applied. for certain. But I would say also, you know, as the result of the announcement of the Plaid contract, the amount of inbound interest from both hyperscalers, utilities, and other developers and other IPPs has been extremely, boy, lack of a better term, I mean, very significant, right? And that's, I would say, around the world, not just here in North America, but in other locations around the world as well, too. on that. So, you know, some of those come from very mature clients, meaning, you know, they've got real projects behind them. You know, some of those opportunities come from developers and other aspects that don't, right? But, you know, I think the amount of attention that we picked up on, not only, I will say, in the marketplace, But I would also say, you know, within, you know, the Department of Energy and the Energy Dominance Council has also been significant on this and the support of this as well, too. So, you know, we have, you know, we're in discussions with a lot on Capitol Hill as well as the Department of Energy, and they're very much aware of the progress not only on the applied base electron project, but also potentially on one or two of these others as well. So, you know, all of that has been very much a positive for us, you know, today, but we'll see how that goes in the future. But it's pretty exciting at this point in time. Jeff Grant | Analyst, Northland Capital: Great. That's real helpful. If I can sneak one more in, maybe for Cameron, is there a way to kind of bifurcate how much of the increase in the guide is related to kind of core business outperformance versus contribution from this project? Cameron Freymeier | Chief Financial Officer: Yeah, I mean, Jeff, I think right now it's with applied being, you know, such a large contract and, you know, days, weeks of POC accounting, we can move that one way or the other. I don't think we're going in that kind of detail at this point in time just because it could move, you know, depending on how all the stuff works out, which is also why we got that larger range. Jeff Grant | Analyst, Northland Capital: Understood. Understood. Fair enough. All right. Thank you guys for your time. Thank you. Tamiya | Conference Call Operator: Thank you. There are currently no other questions queued, so I'll pass it back to Sharon Brooks for closing remarks. Sharon Brooks | Director of Communications: Thank you, everyone, for joining us. That concludes our conference call. A replay will be available for a limited time on our website later today. jsPDF 3.0.3 D:20260606090020-00'00'

Research summary and source transcript

readyJun 10, 2026

Management reported strong Q3 2025 financial performance driven by record parts and services bookings and backlog growth, while advancing a significant AI data center opportunity with Applied Digital that could materially impact future results. The company is actively de-leveraging its balance sheet through debt paydowns and equity raises, positioning itself for growth in 2026. However, the AI data center project remains in early stages with no revenue recognition expected in 2026 guidance, creating a disconnect between near-term financial targets and long-term pipeline potential.

Management knows today that the Applied Digital AI data center project has progressed to a limited notice to proceed, with full notice to proceed expected in the next few months, and that the project involves proven, off-the-shelf boiler and steam turbine technology with minimal engineering risk. They also know that the project scope represents over $1.5 billion in potential revenue for B&W, with a total AI data center pipeline of $10–12 billion when including other opportunities like Climate Bright and Bright Loop. The market likely will not know for 6–24 months whether these pipeline opportunities convert to signed contracts, when full notice to proceed is secured, or when revenue recognition begins under percentage-of-completion accounting, which management indicated would be minimal in 2026 and mostly realized in 2027–2028.

Growth in global parts and services bookings and revenue, backlog conversion from power generation upgrades and construction, and progress in securing and executing large-scale natural gas power plant projects for AI data center and baseload generation demand.

  • Debt reduction and balance sheet improvement through bond paydowns and equity raises
  • Expansion of global parts and services business with record quarterly performance
  • Advancement of AI data center opportunities, particularly the Applied Digital project
  • Development of Bright Loop and Climate Bright technologies for hydrogen, steam, and carbon capture
  • Capacity and scalability of boiler and steam turbine supply chain for large projects
  • Detailed description of the Applied Digital project as a 'profound' impact with 3–5 billion in pipeline upside
  • Emphasis on using 'off-the-shelf' boiler designs with prior installations to reduce engineering and execution risk
  • Excitement about securing verbal commitments for steam turbines and manufacturing capacity
  • Highlighting the project’s speed-to-market advantage over combined or simple cycle plants
  • Enthusiasm about the equity warrant structure with Applied Digital as a positive alignment of interests

Management displayed a confident and direct tone, particularly when discussing the Applied Digital project, using specific technical details about boiler designs, manufacturing readiness, and project timelines to convey credibility. Kenny Young spoke with conviction about the low execution risk due to prior deployment of the same technology, and avoided vague or overly promotional language when addressing working capital, risk sharing, and capacity questions. The CFO provided precise financial figures and clarified guidance boundaries without overstatement. There was no evident defensiveness or evasiveness in tone; instead, executives appeared transparent about what is included in guidance versus what represents upside, reinforcing credibility.

  • There may be at least one Q&A answer that needs manual review for a possible dodge or lack of numerical follow-through.
  • There may be a benchmark or metric-framing issue worth manual review, especially around adjusted metrics, timelines, or changed expectations.

The company appears to be winning competitively in the niche of providing natural gas-based baseload power solutions for AI data centers, leveraging its proven boiler and steam turbine technology with a speed-to-market advantage over alternatives. Management emphasized that the technology is not new but well-deployed, reducing execution risk and positioning B&W as a preferred partner for rapid deployment. The ability to use off-the-shelf designs and leverage existing manufacturing and construction capabilities suggests a differentiated edge over competitors requiring custom engineering. However, the long-term competitive position depends on securing steam turbine capacity and converting pipeline opportunities into contracts, which remains unproven at scale.

  • Q3 2025 adjusted EBITDA: $12.6 million, up 58% YoY
  • Q3 2025 operating income: $6.5 million, up 315% YoY
  • Global parts and services Q3 2025 revenue: $68.4 million, up from $61.7 million in Q3 2024
  • Total backlog: over $393 million, up 56% quarter over quarter
  • 2026 full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance (core business): $70–85 million
  • Total debt as of September 30, 2025: $379.3 million
  • Cash and equivalents: $201.1 million, net debt: $178.2 million
  • Pro forma net debt after equity raise: $113.2 million
  • Full notice to proceed on the Applied Digital AI data center project expected in the next few months
  • Potential announcement of a carbon capture project using Solve Bright technology in the near term
  • Continued progress in Bright Loop commercial development with oil and gas and utility discussions
  • Projected 2026 core business EBITDA of $70–85 million, representing 80% year-over-year growth
  • Ongoing debt paydown schedule, with February 2026 bonds to be paid by end of 2025 and December 2026 bonds to follow
  • The Applied Digital project remains contingent on final notice to proceed, with no guarantee of conversion
  • Revenue recognition from the AI data center project is expected to be minimal in 2026 and mostly realized in 2027–2028, creating a timing mismatch with near-term guidance
  • The company’s ability to scale manufacturing and secure steam turbine capacity for multiple large projects is untested at this scale
  • Dependence on external partners for critical components like steam turbines introduces execution risk
  • The Bright Loop and Climate Bright technologies remain in commercial development with no confirmed large-scale offtake agreements

The AI data center opportunity with Applied Digital represents a direct and potentially transformative impact on B&W’s future growth, involving the design and installation of four 300 MW natural gas-fired power plants using proven boiler and steam turbine technology. Management emphasized that this is not speculative but based on off-the-shelf designs with prior installations, reducing technical risk. The project is expected to begin operations in 2028, with revenue recognition under percentage-of-completion accounting likely starting in 2026 but minimal, with the bulk realized in 2027–2028. The company has expanded its total AI data center pipeline to $10–12 billion, including other opportunities like Climate Bright and Bright Loop, indicating a strategic shift toward serving AI-driven baseload power demand. However, near-term 2026 guidance explicitly excludes any data center-related revenue, meaning the market will not see financial benefits from this pipeline for at least another 12–24 months.

  • When will full notice to proceed be secured for the Applied Digital project, and what are the remaining contingencies?
  • What percentage of the $1.5–3.5 billion Applied Digital project scope is expected to be recognized as revenue in 2026 versus 2027–2028?
  • What are the specific milestones and timelines for converting the $10–12 billion AI data center pipeline into signed contracts?
  • How will B&W manage working capital and cash flow if multiple large data center projects proceed simultaneously?
  • What is the status of steam turbine supplier agreements, and are there binding commitments in place to support project timelines?
  • What are the key technical and commercial milestones for Bright Loop and Climate Bright technologies over the next 12 months?

FY2025 Q3 earnings call transcript

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NYSE:BW Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript Generated on 6/6/2026 Victoria | Conference Call Operator: Good afternoon. Thank you for attending the Babcock and Wilcox Enterprises Third Quarter 2025 Conference Call. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Sharon Brooks, BNW's Director of Communications. Thank you. You may proceed, Ms. Brooks. Thank you, Victoria. Sharon Brooks | Director of Communications: And thanks to everyone for joining us on Babcock and Wilcox Enterprises Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Joining the call today are Kenny Young, B&W's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Cameron Freymeier, Chief Financial Officer, to discuss our third quarter results. During this call, certain statements we make will be forward-looking. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those set forth in our Safe Harbor provision for forward-looking statements that can be found at the end of our earnings press release and also in our Form 10-Q that was filed this afternoon and our Form 10-K that is on file with the SEC, and provide further detail about the risks related to our business. Additionally, except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement. We also provide non-GAAP information regarding certain of our historical and targeted results to supplement the results provided in accordance with GAAP. This information should not be considered superior to or as a substitute for the comparable gap measures. A reconciliation of historical non-gap measures can be found in our third quarter earnings release published last week and in our company overview presentation filed on Form 8K this afternoon and posted on the investor relations section of our website at babcock.com. Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Thanks, Sharon. Well, good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today on our call. We continue to execute on our strategy to expand our global parts and services business while also focusing on large opportunities within North America and reducing a majority of our debt obligations. The increasing demand for power in North America drives our growth and aligns well with our strategy. to divest certain non-core assets to significantly reduce our debt while positioning B&W to play a pivotal role in supporting AI data center expansion and increased baseload generation needs. We are pleased to report a number of positive developments this quarter at Babcock and Wilcox, both in relation to our quarterly financials as well as our recent projects and partnerships that we have completed. Adjusted EBITDA and operating income significantly outperformed company and consensus expectations this quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was 58% higher compared to third quarter of 2024, while operating income was up 315% when compared to the same period of 2024. Our improved margins directly reflect the record quarter results for our parts and services business. During the third quarter, our global parts and services achieved the highest quarterly and year to date bookings, revenue and gross profit in recent company history. Our growing backlog continues to benefit from increasing demand across projects, upgrades and construction as power generation needs for industrials and utilities in North America continue to accelerate. In total, we saw our backlog rise 56% quarter over quarter to a total of over 393 million. Through a combination of disposition of non-core assets and equity raises, we have paid or will pay down the February 2026 notes by end of the year 2025. We also have the liquidity to pay down the December 2026 bonds a process that we plan to begin by end of year. Over the course of the past several months and with key equity raises last week, our balance sheet has significantly improved. With this improvement, along with the tailwinds from baseload generation demands in the market, we have positioned B&W for substantial growth in 2026. We are currently projecting a range of $70 million to $85 million in EBITDA from our core business in 2026, which is 80% growth year over year from 2025. And this does not include any revenues or margin from our recently announced AI data center projects. We have been in discussions on several opportunities within the AI data center space, and we are seeing agentic AI as a new catalyst for higher power demands in the U.S. and around the world. We are pleased to announce that we have signed a limited notice to proceed with Applied Digital to begin work for the delivery and installation of natural gas technology that will provide one gigawatt of efficient energy for an AI factory and data center project. The total project valued at full notice to proceed will be over $1.5 billion in total once finalized, and we anticipate that full notice to proceed to be released in the next few months. As a part of this deal, B&W plans to design and install four 300 megawatt natural gas fired power plants consisting of proven boilers and associated steam turbines to support Applied Digital's AI factory. The plant is targeted to begin operation in 2028. This technology carries equal efficiency as simple cycle turbines and can be operational much faster than combined or simple cycle power plant options. The impact from this deal on B&W is profound, adding 3 to 5 billion in AI data center opportunities in our pipeline. We are also pursuing other projects and opportunities, which brings our total global pipeline to 10 to 12 billion in totality, including Climate Bright and Bright Loop. Taking a look at our Bright Loop technologies, our efforts to progress Bright Loop are moving forward as we further the commercial development of our existing projects and continue working to improve the overall operational effectiveness of these technologies to produce low-cost hydrogen or steam We're seeing increasing activity for Bright Loop technology, both for steam generation and hydrogen production that can produce energy with lower costs and expenditures. In fact, we're in discussions with a number of oil and gas companies and large utilities about using Bright Loop for specific steam or hydrogen generation projects. From a Climate Bright perspective, we are seeing an increased demand to leverage carbon credits, both in waste energy and coal energy, as optional offtake revenues for our customers. We also are in discussions on several opportunities and believe we can announce a significant carbon capture project utilizing our Solve Bright technology very soon. I'll now turn the call over to Cameron to discuss the financial details for the third quarter of 2025. Cameron? Cameron Freymeier | Chief Financial Officer: Yeah, thanks, Kenny. I am pleased to review our third quarter results further details of which can be found in the 10Q that is on file with the SEC. Our third quarter consolidated revenues were $149 million, which was roughly in line with the third quarter of 2024. Global parts and service remained strong in the third quarter of 2025, with revenues of $68.4 million compared to revenues of $61.7 million in the third quarter of 2024. The improvement is primarily due to the increasing need for electricity from fossil fuels, driven by the demand from artificial intelligence, data centers, and expanding economies. Our net operating income in the third quarter of 2025 was $6.5 million compared to operating income of $1.6 million in the third quarter of 2025. Loss from continuing operations in the third quarter of 2025 was $2.3 million compared to a loss of $7.9 million in the third quarter of 2024, and our adjusted EBITDA was $12.6 million compared to $8 million in the third quarter of 2024, beating street expectations. As Kenny stated earlier, we have announced our 2026 full-year adjusted EBITDA target range of $70 to $85 million, stemming from our core business, which does not take into account any growth related to data centers. I'll now turn to our balance sheet, cash flow, and liquidity. Total debt at September 30th, 2025 was $379.3 million, consisting of 98.4 million of February 2026 bonds, 90.9 million of December 2026 bonds, and 121 million of bonds due in 2030, with the remaining debt being related to our veterans of credits. As of September 30th, we have zero drawn on our asset-based loan. The company had cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash balance of 201.1 million giving us a net debt as of September 30th, 2025 of 178.2 million. On October 2nd, B&W paid down 70 million of bonds that were due in February of 2026. And we recently announced the remaining outstanding February 2026 bonds will be paid down fully in December of 2025. Another notable development took place last week when the company was able to raise an additional 65 million of equity which has further strengthened our balance sheet and shows the ability to pay down the remaining of the 2026 bonds that are due in December of 2026. When factoring in our recent equity raise, this will leave us with a pro forma net debt of 113.2 million, which will be between 0.8 to 1.6 times targeted 2026 EBITDA. Lastly, although we said on Friday that we would be pausing sales under the ATM program, We've decided to resume ATM sales and intend to sell shares under the ATM program opportunistically based on market conditions and our share price. I'll now turn the call back over to Kenny. Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Cameron, thanks. Well, in closing, as always, I would just like to recognize the efforts of our dedicated and talented employees that are around the world who focus on working hard every day to meet the challenges and supporting our customers while meeting the energy demands of today. I will now turn the call back over to Victoria, who will, and I think we have time for about three questions. So, Victoria, I'll turn it back over to you. Victoria | Conference Call Operator: Thanks. Of course. As he said, for today's call, we will only have time for three questions. Our first question comes from the line of Aaron Spichala with Craig Hallam. Your line is now open. Aaron Spichala | Analyst, Craig-Hallum Capital Markets: Yeah, hi, Kenny and Cameron. Thanks for taking the questions. Maybe first on the $1.5 billion project, can you just talk a little bit about next steps that are needed and how you see potential contribution from a timing and margin perspective moving forward, and then just thoughts on the supply chain and working capital needs as that ramps? Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Sure, no, appreciate that, Aaron. Thanks for jumping on the call today. So first of all, we're actually right now working with Applied obviously to finalize the exact location where this will take place. And so we can finalize the full notice to proceed, which again, as you mentioned in the comments, we anticipate being done here in the next couple of months. As part of that, we're also behind the scenes working with a few of the steam turbines at this point in time and have secured some verbal commitments that we have the ability to meet these timeframes. And so we'll look to finalize those details on that as well as our own manufacturing of these particular boilers. The great news, I think, in this case is that we're using – I'm going to use the term off-the-shelf. So these are – these 300-megawatt boilers are designs that we have. installed at several locations prior to this event. So this is a proven technology in architecture. And so there's very little, if any, engineering that needs to be performed in order to get these to a manufacturing state. We already have the construction drawings of each of these with application diagrams, the layouts, the header layouts, the tubing, everything associated with this type of a boiler to meet the specs and standards here in the U.S. and so it's an easy method for us to move that right into the manufacturing process and that's the exciting part here it's a rare opportunity for us to do and utilize a design that we have implemented in many locations prior so we're obviously very comfortable with the standards and the performance of those boilers easy to move into manufacturing and leveraging the fact that we have access to the steam turbines in a much faster um go-to-market model than than trying to leverage a combined cycle or simple cycle turbine plant um today so that's the benefit here on that but we're working through all of those in parallel with applied and again trying to have the phone notice proceed um signed here in the next couple months and we're working uh diligently behind the scenes to um move the project uh full forward um As it relates to the working capital aspects on it, you know, we'll work with Applied on the timing of that and how we move that forward. That'll be part of the full notice to proceed process here over the next couple months. You know, typically for us, we typically keep the working capital on projects like this at a neutral to, you know, positive. So, you know, down payment requirements that we have with manufacturers and subcontractors are typically collected up front on these projects. I have no reason to believe it would be any different here. So we're moving forward under that direction, and Applied understands that as well. So we think that will help minimize this a little bit overall and any impacts of working capital on the company, and we should remain cash flow positive on this as we do on projects like this. at this point in time. So that's the overall plan. As far as revenue recognition goes and margin recognition, obviously we're a POC shop under that. It will depend on timing of when we can apply the cost to the project into next year. Some of that will be based on the final notice to proceed and the timeframe there. So it's a little bit vague and it won't be terribly much, I would say in 26, um you know i don't know i'm just throwing out a number maybe 10 15 um of the value would be realized then the the bulk of it would based on the accounting methods would be realized more in the the 27 and obviously um uh 28. so um we've you know based on the fact that we're still finalizing that mtp uh in our guidance next year we have not included this project or any other data center projects in that 70 to 85 million range. So this would represent complete upside and probably significant upside to any number that we would be putting out right now. Cameron, I don't see anything you want to add to that, but otherwise, I'll turn it back to you. Cameron Freymeier | Chief Financial Officer: No, no. I think you hit all the points, Kenny. Aaron Spichala | Analyst, Craig-Hallum Capital Markets: That's very helpful. Thanks. You know, maybe just second on the additional pipeline sounds like, you know, last week it was a billion and a half. This today sounds like maybe three to five billion. You know, so maybe some growth there. Can you just talk about how mature some of those opportunities are and, you know, potential timing of when you could see some of those move forward as well? Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: We are obviously in talks with several as it relates to, and have been, you know, I want to emphasize that have been prior to this announcement in talks with several on this particular solution in different sizes, right? Meaning in some would be smaller in a, MAYBE A HALF GIGAWATT RANGE, SOME ARE PERHAPS EVEN A LITTLE LARGER IN A, YOU KNOW, ONE AND A HALF TO TWO GIGAWATT RANGE. SO THERE'S A NUMBER OF THESE OPPORTUNITIES WHERE THIS SOLUTION MAKES THE MOST SENSE FROM BOTH A COST STANDPOINT AS WELL AS DELIVERY AND TIMEFRAME STANDPOINT. SOME OF THAT WOULD BE SUBJECT TO, YOU KNOW, COMPLETE AVAILABILITY IN THE MANUFACTURING AND THE STEAM TURBINE SIDE. AND AGAIN, YOU KNOW, THE EARLY INDICATIONS ARE WE'VE GOT SOME REAL POSITIVE CAPACITIES THERE TO MEET THIS ENTIRE DEMAND. And so it's on some of those that will be working with them to move forward, hopefully on a couple of those opportunities, if we can get them to commit, I would say those would be in the next year's timeframe to announce on that regard. But we're obviously involved with these other opportunities that are out there and fully intend to push those across um the goal line the that's on this solution the other ones that we're heavily working with is related to our denim partnership um and we are working very closely with denim capital right now on a number of locations um to convert some coal plants to natural gas and that that's also in the works as well too so i think you know we have Those opportunities are within that opportunity and pipeline as well as the other natural gas and steam turbine combination that were proposed for applied would also be in that opportunity as well. So the combinations of all that and the sizes of those, we decided to take the pipeline up even a little bit further from last week. Aaron Spichala | Analyst, Craig-Hallum Capital Markets: That's great. Thanks for the color and best of luck. I'll turn it over. Victoria | Conference Call Operator: Thanks. Thank you for your questions. Our next question comes from the line of Rob Brown with Lake Street Capital Markets. Rob Brown | Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets: Good afternoon. On the ability or your capacity for that pipeline, what is your capacity sort of in this PowerGen segment, and how do you sort of think about capacity kind of limits there? Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: So there's two main components to that capacity aspect, Rob. And thanks for jumping on, by the way. There's two aspects to that. One is the manufacturing of the boiler, fabrication of the boiler. For us, that's par for the course, right? That's what we do. And we have been looking and evaluating our own internal capacities that we have today. AS WELL AS OUR EXTERNAL PARTNERS THAT WE USE IN VARIOUS PLACES AROUND THE WORLD TO MANUFACTURE THESE KIND OF SYSTEMS. SO ALL OF THOSE COMPANIES ARE ON BOARD WITH THIS. AND QUITE FRANKLY, IT'S A VOLUME. MANY OF THESE MANUFACTURING AND FABRICATION GROUPS ARE COMFORTABLE AND USED TO DEALING WITH PROJECTS OF THIS SIZE. SO IT'S JUST A MATTER OF HOW MUCH WE CAN PUT INTO EACH LOCATION ON THAT. AND WE'RE GOING THROUGH THAT RIGHT NOW. I would say within the pipeline that we have today, again, depending on the exact timing of some of this, we feel pretty comfortable that we can complete the manufacturing and have the capacity to do that on the boiler fabrication and manufacturing. On the steam turbine aspect of this, the good news is there's a lot more steam turbine companies than there are combined cycle and simple cycle companies. out there. We're in, you know, can't give names right now, but we're in discussions with several and are quickly trying to move into a relationship with them that we have this capacity secured, you know, and we believe just based on a lot of the early conversations that we're having with these particular groups that that capacity does exist. maybe across, you know, a couple different manufacturers, and we'll have to work through that. But, you know, from a steam turbine perspective, we think these opportunities do exist. They're obviously very excited because this is a way for them to get involved in a high-growth area for them as well, too. So, so far, it's been full energy, if you will, across both the manufacturing side and on the steam turbine side as well. Rob Brown | Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets: Okay, thank you for that. Switching to kind of the climate-pride projects, I think you mentioned the CO2 capture opportunity that's developing. Can you give a little more color there on when that might happen and what the size could be? Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, so there are, you know, a few projects that we're in dialogue and discussions on. Some of these are, you know, feed studies that, you know, we always talk about feed studies out there, feed studies meaning front-end engineering design studies, and we have several of those going on at this case. So, you know, we're in discussions right now to finalize an opportunity and, you know, feel like that can happen fairly soon, hopefully, you know, not days, weeks at max. ON A PROJECT THAT WE CAN PUT OUT AND, YOU KNOW, BORDER MAGNITUDE, YOU KNOW, WOULD BE IN THE I JUST CALL IT 72 um 100 million ish in that category i'll leave it kind of a little bit of a range there as we finalize it but um you know on the initial project itself and then you know there's probably more opportunities and upside on that but um we're we are seeing um you know in the us from some of these operators and the hyperscalers and other aspects where you know a few occasions they would like to have the CDRs or the carbon offtake and the groups that are building out these power plants are looking at how they can capture CDRs or carbon to be able to sell those as additional revenue for the plant owners as it relates to building out the infrastructure to support the hyperscalers. And we've seen that with a few developers and we've got, I think, a pathway here to hopefully announce a project or two, but one specifically in the next days, if not weeks. Rob Brown | Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets: Okay, thank you. Congratulations on the progress. Yeah, thank you. Victoria | Conference Call Operator: Thank you for your questions. Our next question comes from the line of Brent Thaleman with BA Davidson. Your line is now open. Brent Thaleman | Analyst, B.A. Davidson: Hey, thank you. Hey, Kenny, I want to ask just back on the Applied Digital contract, a billion and a half dollars, is that all within B&W's Scope, I know this is all getting worked out, but obviously it's a, it's a massive potential uptick to. The backlog that you have today, so just wanted to kind of understand what's all in there. Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, no, this is that that doing and a half would anticipate and represent scope as associated with this project, right? would bring all of the aspects and elements of the boiler and the steam capabilities, plus the construction aspect, right? We have our own construction company here in the U.S., so it'd be blended with construction, the steam turbines and the boiler aspect of it. And then we'll work through some of the other elements to complete the plant on time and on schedule. We'll work with the plant on that. So we put it as over a billion and a half at that site. The total value could be higher depending on final scope. And we'll just have to work through that. But I wanted to give some idea and indication of what it looks like from a B&W perspective. So we intended that to be our scope. The scope of the project would be a little bit larger. under that scenario, but we'll work with them to complete that once we have the NTP finalized. Brent Thaleman | Analyst, B.A. Davidson: Okay. Yeah, I appreciate that, Kenny. And then I guess just as a follow-up, anything you can say in terms of just risk sharing associated with it? Is this all fixed price in terms of execution? And I noticed there's an equity component that Applied Digital gets in BW. Maybe just talk about that whether that's going to be something that's ongoing as you look to maybe some of these other opportunities out there. Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: You know, it's hard to say whether that same model would exist elsewhere too early. Not saying it won't, but hard to say right now. On it, we viewed it as a very positive thing. We think, you know, having Those warrants out there, obviously, there's incentive for applied to get the NTP done sooner and complete, obviously. But, you know, also, you know, there's buy-in, if you will, or support for BW overall, not only as a potential customer and client, but, you know, as a shareholder as well, too. We think all of that's very much positive. And we, you know, obviously have seen that throughout some of the data center and other aspects as well, too. So, we view that as overall very, very positive. As far as the risk share, we're working through that right now on how that would appear to be. The outside manufacturers and seed turbine companies would share a part of that risk overall as well, too. And, you know, we as we always do, we look to balance it. I think the biggest piece here is that and this is what greatly reduces the risk overall to us is that this is these are projects and technologies that we have. performed on a multitude of other occasions. So, there's no new technology being designed or installed here or implemented here. This is well-proven technology that has been installed in tens, if not dozens, of locations where B&W has actually constructed these. Obviously, we have the I think, advantage in the U.S. having our construction company and leveraging the boilermakers who are a great welder and fabrication aspect of this on site. But again, these are all boilers that have been built previously. So we know the performance, we know the complexity that's involved in these, the timeframe that's involved in these, you know, and as well as we've gone through all of the risk aspect of overseeing the manufacturing processes of these and understand how to manage that manufacturing process effectively. And we've got all the best practices and everything from each of these that we've implemented in prior periods. So this is unlike any other large project that B&W has been in historically. This one I think is extremely unique and opportunistic because it is something that has been done many, many times before. And there is absolutely no new technologies being implemented here. So, to us, that's a significant reduction in risk in that case, and the terms and conditions will all be detailed in the final notice to proceed. Brent Thaleman | Analyst, B.A. Davidson: Okay. Got it. Thanks, Kenny. Victoria | Conference Call Operator: Thank you for your questions. That will conclude our question and answer session today. I would now like to pass the call back to Sharon for any final remarks. Sharon Brooks | Director of Communications: Thank you for joining us. This concludes our conference call. A replay will be available for a limited time on our website later today. Victoria | Conference Call Operator: That concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation and enjoy the rest of your day. jsPDF 3.0.3 D:20260606090022-00'00'

Research summary and source transcript

readyJun 10, 2026

Babcock & Wilcox is experiencing a strategic shift driven by rising demand for baseload power generation linked to AI data center expansion, which is boosting its higher-margin parts and services business. The company has strengthened its balance sheet through the sale of Diamond Power and debt refinancing, alleviating going-concern doubts. However, core revenue excluding Diamond Power remains flat year-over-year, indicating that growth is concentrated in services rather than new large-scale projects, and the BrightLoop technology remains in early-stage discussions without commercial scale.

Management knows today that specific utility customers are actively discussing new coal-fired generation projects in the U.S. to support data center demand, with some targeting up to 20 gigawatts of new capacity in specific territories, and that these discussions include potential use of BrightLoop technology for steam generation with integrated CO2 capture — details that are not yet reflected in market expectations, which remain focused on historical financials and broad industry trends rather than the granular, project-level opportunities being negotiated behind the scenes.

The business is driven by (1) demand for parts and services to extend the life and improve efficiency of existing fossil fuel power plants, (2) baseload generation growth from AI-driven data center expansion, and (3) progress in monetizing the BrightLoop technology for steam or hydrogen production with CO2 capture capability.

  • Growth in parts and services revenue linked to data center-driven baseload demand
  • Progress in debt reduction and balance sheet improvement via asset sales and refinancing
  • Opportunities for new coal and natural gas generation projects in the U.S. to support data centers
  • Development and customer discussions around BrightLoop technology for steam/hydrogen with CO2 capture
  • Backlog growth and conversion of the $7.6 billion pipeline of identified project opportunities
  • Detailed explanation of how BrightLoop avoids post-combustion CO2 capture costs and parasitic load penalties
  • Specific reference to customers discussing up to 20 gigawatts of new generation in targeted U.S. territories for data center support
  • Emphasis on the optionality BrightLoop provides for future CO2 sequestration without incremental CapEx
  • Enthusiasm about extending plant lifespans creating long-term parts and service revenue streams
  • Pride in alleviating going-concern doubts through Diamond Power sale and debt restructuring

Management speaks with directness and specificity when discussing operational improvements, balance sheet actions, and customer conversations — naming specific technologies, dollar amounts, and gigawatt-scale opportunities. Their confidence in alleviating going-concern doubts and generating positive cash flow is grounded in disclosed transactions (Diamond Power sale, debt exchange). While optimistic about BrightLoop and new projects, they avoid overpromising on timelines or scale, using qualifiers like 'too early to tell' and 'discussions,' which enhances credibility. There is no evident evasiveness or exaggeration in their tone.

  • There may be at least one Q&A answer that needs manual review for a possible dodge or lack of numerical follow-through.
  • There may be a benchmark or metric-framing issue worth manual review, especially around adjusted metrics, timelines, or changed expectations.

The company appears to be winning in its niche of servicing and upgrading existing fossil fuel fleets, particularly as baseload demand rises due to data centers. Its competitive position is strengthened by proprietary technology like BrightLoop that offers CO2 capture optionality without efficiency penalty, and by its strengthened balance sheet. However, it is not clear whether it is gaining share in new large-scale generation builds, as that remains discussion-stage. Overall, it appears to be defending and extending its position in a evolving market rather than clearly winning or losing broadly.

  • Parts and services revenue increased 31% year-over-year in Q2 2025
  • Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations was $15.1 million in Q2 2025, a 90% increase from $8 million in Q2 2024
  • Backlog at end of Q2 2025 was $418.1 million, a 49% increase year-over-year
  • Diamond Power sold for gross proceeds of $177 million, or roughly eight times EBITDA
  • Total debt expected to be $421.3 million post-Diamond Power sale (down from $471.3 million)
  • Net debt expected to be approximately $203.9 million after Diamond Power proceeds
  • Announcement of new coal or natural gas-fired generation projects tied to data center demand by end of 2025
  • Commercial deployment of BrightLoop technology in a utility or industrial steam/hydrogen project
  • Continued backlog conversion from the $7.6 billion pipeline supporting revenue growth in 2026
  • Further debt reduction using proceeds from potential non-strategic asset sales
  • Positive free cash flow generation in the second half of 2025 as anticipated by management
  • Core revenue excluding Diamond Power remained flat year-over-year, suggesting limited growth in new large projects
  • BrightLoop technology remains in discussion phase with no disclosed commercial projects or revenue contribution
  • Dependence on fossil fuel demand exposes the company to long-term energy transition and regulatory risks
  • Large project revenue recognition remains lumpy and timing-dependent, creating quarterly volatility
  • Ability to convert the $7.6 billion pipeline into booked backlog and revenue remains unproven at scale

Management directly links AI-driven data center expansion to increased baseload generation demand, citing customer expectations of up to 120 gigawatts of new baseload capacity over the next 10 years from data centers alone. This is driving discussions around new coal and natural gas generation projects, as well as parts and service demand to keep existing plants running efficiently. The impact is both direct (new generation opportunities) and indirect (service demand), with BrightLoop positioned as a technology that could support data center-aligned projects with integrated CO2 capture, though no data center-specific deals have been disclosed.

  • What specific milestones must be met for BrightLoop to transition from discussion to commercial revenue generation in 2025 or 2026?
  • Can management provide a breakdown of the $418.1 million backlog by segment (projects vs. services) and geography to assess quality and conversion likelihood?
  • What is the expected timeline and capacity scale for the new coal/generation projects currently under discussion with utility customers?
  • How sustainable is the 31% year-over-year growth in parts and services, and what portion is tied to contractual extensions versus incremental demand?
  • Beyond debt reduction, what is the company’s capital allocation priority for excess cash flow — debt paydown, BrightLoop investment, or shareholder returns?
  • What are the key assumptions behind the expectation of positive free cash flow in the second half of 2025, and what risks could delay it?

FY2025 Q2 earnings call transcript

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NYSE:BW Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript Generated on 6/6/2026 Jayla | Conference Operator: Good afternoon, and thank you for attending today's Babcock and Wilcox Enterprises second quarter 2025 conference call. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Sharon Brooks, B&W's Director of Communications. Thank you. You may proceed, Mrs. Brooks. Sharon Brooks | Director of Communications and Marketing: Thank you, Jayla, and thanks to everyone for joining us on Babcock and Wilcox Enterprises second quarter 2025 earnings conference call. As Jayla said, I'm Sharon Brooks, Director of Communications and Marketing. Joining the call today are Kenny Young, B&W's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Cameron Freymeier, Chief Financial Officer, to discuss our second quarter results. During this call, certain statements we make will be forward-looking. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those set forth in our safe harbor provision for forward-looking statements that can be found at the end of our earnings press release and also in our Form 10-Q that was filed this afternoon and our Form 10-K that is on file with the SEC and provide further detail about the risks related to our business. Additionally, except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. We also provide non-GAAP information regarding certain of our historical and targeted results to supplement the results provided in accordance with GAAP. This information should not be considered superior to or as a substitute for the comparable GAAP measures. A reconciliation of historical non-GAAP measures can be found in our second quarter earnings release published this afternoon and in our company overview presentation filed on Form 8K this afternoon and posted on the investor relations section of our website at babcock.com. I will now turn the call over to Kenny. Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Thanks, Sharon. Well, good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us on our second quarter 2025 earnings call. We generated strong operating results highlighted by strong performance from our parts and services business, which posted a 31% increase in revenues compared to the second quarter of 2024. This growth has been spurred by the rising need for power and electricity due to the rapid expansion of AI-driven data centers, as well as increased baseload generation usage across the consumer manufacturing and industrial sectors. In fact, most of our clients expect increases in baseload generation by up to 120 gigawatts over the next 10 years from data centers alone. As a result, we continue to work with our customers to evaluate opportunities to further augment their power generation capacity with either biomass, hydrogen, natural gas, and coal. And we are working closely with our utility customers to help extend the life and improve the efficiency of their existing coal and natural gas power plants. We believe this increased demand continues to position us for sustained success across our higher margin parts and services businesses and provides B&W with a strong outlook for the second half of 2025 and beyond. Adjusted EBITDA, including diamond power, was $21.6 million for the second quarter, which was over 70% greater than street expectations and primarily driven by by the 31% increase in higher margin parts and services revenue coming from coal and fossil fuel power plants in the US and internationally as well. This reflects our intent to exit from certain large new-build projects internationally, and while we continue to expand our parts and services presence globally to support coal and fossil fuel customers around the world, We also are actively pursuing large upgrades and new builds in the U.S. to support power generation needs and expect to make key announcements by the end of the year. Large project revenue will remain up and down each quarter depending on timing and quarter-over-quarter overlap of new bookings. Company-wide revenues with Diamond Power came in at $170.8 million, which is just ahead of street expectations. Revenue from continued operations without diamond power for the quarter came in at $144.1 million, which is roughly the same as second quarter of 2024, again, mainly due to slightly lower projects, while parts and services, however, saw a dramatic increase. Overall, our revenues for the first half of 2025 from continuing operations without diamond power were up year over year to just under $300 million in top-line revenues. Operating income increased to 8.1 million in the second quarter of 2025, and adjusted EBITDA without Diamond Power, otherwise called adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations, was 15.1 million in the second quarter of 2025, which is a 90% increase compared to 8 million in the second quarter of 2024. Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations more than doubled for the first six months of 2025 to 21.2 million, compared to the first six months in 2024. The company's core business continues to perform ahead of expectations, and we anticipate returning to positive cash flows in 2025 when excluding Brightloop. Additionally, through a combination of asset sales, debt reduction, and improved cash flows, the company has alleviated the previous doubt about continuing as a going concern. We believe we are well positioned now to win new plant conversions, plant upgrades, and behind-the-meter data center projects in North America and beyond, as we are in key discussions and negotiations on several opportunities and expect continued strong performance as we move forward through the year into 2026 and beyond. During the quarter, we completed the sale of Diamond Power International for gross proceeds of $177 million. million, or roughly about eight times EBITDA. This further improves our balance sheet and reinforces the mark-to-market value of our underlying assets as we recapitalize our business. This represents a significant improvement in our net leverage ratios as we look to continue supporting our customers' long-term power needs and position the company for the advancement of our new technologies, such as BrightLoop. We also recently entered into a private bond exchange with a limited number of note holders. These exchanges will help to reduce our annual interest expense by little over $1 million annually while reducing outstanding debt and extending debt maturity to 2030. This privately negotiated bond exchange resulted in $131.8 million of outstanding bonds due in 2026 being replaced with new bonds in the amount of $100.7 million that will be due in 2030. This represents a positive step in our restructuring and refinancing efforts while demonstrating continued support from our lenders and bondholders. Moving forward, we remain intently focused on our strategic vision and continue to explore the sale of other non-strategic assets as well as potential refinancing options to reduce our current and long-term debt obligations. We continue to see strong global demand for our diverse portfolio of technologies and are making progress in converting our $7.6 billion global pipeline of identified project opportunities. Our backlog of $418.1 million at the end of second quarter was a 49% increase compared to the same period in 2024. This represents another extremely strong quarter for our backlog as we continue to perform in based on higher baseload generation demand in North America. We believe these results affirm our strong foundation while underpinning our pipeline and outlook for the year ahead. Our efforts to progress Brightloop are moving forward as we further the commercial development of existing projects and continue working to improve the overall operational effectiveness of these technologies to produce low-cost hydrogen or steam We're seeing an increasing activity for our Bright Loop technology, both for steam generation as well as hydrogen production that can produce energy with lower costs and expenditures. In fact, we are in discussions with a number of oil and gas companies and large utilities about using Bright Loop for specific steam or hydrogen generation projects. I'll now turn the call over to Cameron to discuss the financial details of the second quarter of 2025. Cameron? Cameron Freymeier | Chief Financial Officer: Thanks, Kenny. I am pleased to review our second quarter results, further details of which can be found in the 10Q that is on file with the SEC. Our second quarter consolidated revenues were $144.1 million, which is slightly lower compared to the second quarter of 2024. The difference is primarily related to timing of closing and starting of a select few large projects, offset partially by an increase in global parts and services of $15.4 million. First half 2025 revenue came in at $299.9 million, which is an increase compared to the $292.3 million in the first half of 2024. The increase is primarily driven by larger global parts and service volume, offset partially by timing of large project revenue recognition. Global parts and service revenue in the second quarter of 2025 increased by $15.4 million compared to the second quarter of 2024. and increased 26.9 million in the first half of 2025 when compared to the first half of 2024. This considerable improvement is primarily due to the increasing need for electricity from fossil fuels driven by the demand from artificial intelligence, data centers, and expanding economies. Net loss from continuing operations in the second quarter of 2025 was 6.1 million, which was a better result compared to a net loss of $20.5 million in the second quarter of 2024. Loss in the first half of 2025 was $20.1 million compared to a loss of $38.2 million in the first half of 2024. Our net operating income in the second quarter of 2025 was $8.1 million, exceeding our quarterly expectations and outpacing an operating loss of $4.4 million in the second quarter of 2024. Operating income in the first half of 2025 was $8.4 million compared to an operating loss of $3.5 million in the first half of 2024. Our adjusted EBITDA was $15.1 million compared to $8 million in the second quarter of 2024. And adjusted EBITDA in the first half of 2025 was $21.2 million, an increase compared to the $10.8 million in the first half of 2024. These increases are primarily the result of higher global parts and service volume as a result of higher energy demand. I will now turn to our balance sheet, cash flow and liquidity. Total debt at June 30th, 2025 was $471.3 million, and the company had cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash balance of $109.1 million. However, as previously announced on July 31st, BMW closed the sale of Diamond Power for gross proceeds of $177 million. These proceeds will primarily be used to pay down V&W's debt, and as of July 31st, total debt is expected to be $421.3 million, with a cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash balance of $217.4 million. This leaves the company with net debt of approximately $203.9 million. The refinancing and reduction of our current debt obligations continues to be one of our top priorities. We have taken strategic steps to address our debt obligations, and today we are extremely pleased to announce that B&W has alleviated the previous doubt about continuing as a going concern. This is a major step forward for B&W, and we believe that we are well positioned to support our customers in meeting the growing need for reliable and efficient energy, including opportunities for new plant conversions, upgrades, and behind-the-meter data center projects. We continue to explore the sale of additional non-strategic assets as well as potential refinancing options to reduce our current and long-term debt obligations as mentioned earlier. The proceeds of these sales will be used primarily to pay down existing debt and enhance working capital. I will now turn the call back over to Kenny. Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Thanks, Cameron. Well, in closing, Again, we delivered strong operating results in the second quarter, demonstrating the progress we continue to make as we execute our strategic plan and drive further improvements in our balance sheet. We expect continued strong financial performance throughout the remainder of the year, buoyed by a global pipeline of over 7.6 billion identified project opportunities that remains healthy across all business segments. We believe B&W is well-positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for baseload generation while also supporting energy security and energy transition. Also want to recognize and thank our experienced and talented employees who continue to help drive the company's success. We greatly appreciate their efforts as well as the continued support of our global customer base and suppliers, and we remain excited about the growth prospect ahead of us. We look forward to continuing to demonstrate B&W's role in a leader and innovator providing leading power generation and environmental solutions that meet the world's need for reliable power today while advancing technologies for tomorrow. I'll now turn the call over to Jayla, who will help us with a couple questions. Jayla? Jayla | Conference Operator: At this time, if you'd like to ask a question, it is stopped followed by one on your telephone keypad. If for any reason you would like to remove that question, it is star followed by two. Again, to ask a question, it is star one. As a reminder, if you're using a speakerphone, please remember to pick up your headset before asking a question. I'll pause briefly here as questions are registered. Our first question comes from Aaron Spicella with the company Craig Hallam. Aaron, your line is not open. Aaron Spicella | Analyst, Craig Hallam & Co.: Yeah. Hi, Kenny and Cameron. Thanks for taking the questions. Maybe first, you know, can you just talk about the current demand for energy that you're seeing on the thermal side of the business with everything going on? You kind of talked about some potential large upgrades and new builds later this year. And it sounds like you're hearing of the possibility of some new coal-fired generation being built. So can you just maybe give an update there, please? Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, no, thanks, Aaron. We are, actually. So, you know, as I mentioned, in the U.S.-North America loan, right, we're seeing the overall need the next 10 years go up to about 120 gigawatts, which is about a 10% baseload generation increase. Think about that in context of a, you know, a baseload demand in the U.S. that's been relatively flat over the years. And, you know, now the entire aspect of the generation plus, you know, the grid infrastructure has to be enhanced and upgraded to hit that kind of demand. Specifically, you know, without giving names, we do have a handful of customers that are now looking to build out, you know, up to 20 gigawatts within those potential areas of new generation to support data center demand that's taking place within those specific territories. And they're looking at right now, you know, all aspects of energy generation, including, as you mentioned, which is exciting for us, obviously the potential around new coal generation or new coal power plants here in the US. Obviously, a lot of support is given towards the fossil fuel aspect and coal and natural gas are key drivers to support that baseload generation. Exciting to us if we took that to the next step, obviously, and a lot of work to still be done, but the Bright Loop represents an opportunity there to actually use in that particular case, because we can produce steam from Bright Loop, doesn't have to produce hydrogen, but we can just produce steam directly from coal, but isolate and capture the CO2, which can either be sequestered or used for other beneficial purposes. enhanced oil recovery or other capabilities either now or sometime in the future. So as we're continuing to work with those customers on that, specifically a few customers where we're in discussions on projects with them to actually augment their power generation as they're trying to respond to these data centers, It opens the door for us on a wide variety of technologies, but, you know, inclusive Brightloop, leveraging coal as well. So we're excited about those opportunities. We're, you know, in discussions on several on those and, you know, anticipate hopefully, you know, an announcement or two yet this year, obviously. So still have a ways to go, but a lot of momentum right now taking place. That also adds that currently, as I mentioned, we're such an increase in our parts and services because a lot of the power demands to keep the current fossil fuel plants open, including coal plants, is really driven right now. And so those are running full. Good news is, though... A lot of them now are being extended out for a longer-term period of time. And so there's a lot of opportunities for us to get in and work with those customers on making them as efficient as possible, continue to work on providing the parts and services on this particular plant. So, you know, we're in a good position to support them on accomplishing both directions. One, keeping everything going. Two, obviously supplant or increase base load generation. Aaron Spicella | Analyst, Craig Hallam & Co.: Thanks for that. And then, you know, just any thoughts on what that might look like from a size, you know, order perspective? Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: You know, too early to tell is, you know, always get into the size of negotiations on these, but, you know, out there, but some of these, you know, typically would be in the you know, in the low 100s, and some of those might be a little bit higher than that in the, you know, size itself. So we continue to work on those plants, but they're going to vary in size depending on the actual outputs on those particular sites that we're working on. But too soon to give too much guidance there, but, you know, it's a positive outcome for us all around. The good news is that revenue would be spread over, you know, a few-year period of time. Um, and you know, the backside of those is that we'd continue to provide parts and services, those plants. So provides a, you know, a base for us to continue to grow our core business on as well. Aaron Spicella | Analyst, Craig Hallam & Co.: No, I appreciate that. And then, you know, just any thoughts on, on the second half, I know you have, you know, you had some guidance out there before the sale of diamond power and you noted, you know, improvements expected in the back half, just any other color there. Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Not yet. We're still working through. I mean, we're anticipating a strong year, obviously, because of the parts and services aspect, which is higher margin for us for the rest of the year, but also getting ready for 2026 as well, too, which we're seeing as a potentially strong year for us, too. So we're trying to work on both right now, and obviously we'll come out with guidance before the end of the year on that. That's our intended way, but still working through both those. Aaron Spicella | Analyst, Craig Hallam & Co.: Understood. And then maybe last question, just on free cash flow, you noted continuing to expect a return to positive free cash flow in 2025. Can you just speak to confidence there, you know, with the ramp that would be needed there in the back half? Cameron Freymeier | Chief Financial Officer: Yeah, I think when you look at the second half of the year, I think, you know, just taking the following six months will be cash positive. You know, we're working on getting the sale of the assets, getting the interest down. So that'll help out quite a bit. And as we ramp up on some of the natural gas conversion project, that'll bring in some cash. As Kenny mentioned, too, the parts and services is growing, which is helping cash flow as well. So, yeah, we have pretty good confidence that second half a year will generate positive cash. Aaron Spicella | Analyst, Craig Hallam & Co.: All right. Thanks for taking the questions. I'll turn it over. Jayla | Conference Operator: Thanks, Aaron. Our last question comes from Rob Brown with the company Lake Street Capital Markets. Rob, your line is now open. Rob Brown | Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets: Good afternoon. Congratulations on all the progress. Thank you. Jayla | Conference Operator: Thanks, Rob. Rob Brown | Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets: On the parts and service business, yeah, on the parts and service business, you know, as you kind of get these plants running longer, maybe you could explain a little bit the dynamic of how the extending of life helps your parts and service business and what that kind of incremental opportunity is. Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, so some of these plants, obviously, you know, they vary in all of the states that are out there here in the U.S., but, you know, some that may have had a shorter lifespan where they may look to convert some of those or, you know, perhaps close some of those, started to slow down and ramp down their buying of parts and services to work on those plants. So when they extend them out for a longer period of time, you know, they have to go back and start looking at, you know, some of the bigger pieces, right, and as well as, the efficiency of those plants and maybe relook at some of the environmental aspects and blah, blah, blah. So there's just follow on aspects to keeping those plants running for a little bit longer term, um, or a longer term that, you know, bode well for us, uh, in the short order. So that's, that's all a positive. And clearly, you know, as the plants run longer, um, on that particular aspect of it, it just extends out the revenues that, uh, we realized from those plants in a longer period of time. So, um, Both of those are solid for us and very helpful to us, but that's really the reason why an extension is good for us short term. Rob Brown | Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets: Thank you. And then on the Brightloop pipeline out there, you talked about some STEAM projects, but could you sort of give a sense of the number of projects in the pipeline and some of the potential there? Kenny Young | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: On Brightloop specifically? Yeah, correct. Yeah, so there's quite a few. I'm going to give a number just as a quick range here, but well over 10 that we're working on. in Brightloop. But I think the exciting part and always the hardest part about a new technology is that it does multiple things. So Brightloop fundamentally can produce syngas such as hydrogen, nitrogen, other aspects that we can actually create ammonia from it as well. Or we can just produce steam from Brightloop. Same fuels as hydrogen, doesn't matter. For us, it's just we have less one reactor. So if it's just steam, we have a fuel reactor and a steam output. If it's hydrogen, we have three reactors to produce the hydrogen from. So it just depends on the application. But the exciting part is that Bright Lube by itself actually can produce steam from coal or natural gas or steam from biomass and other fuels as well to drive a turbine for electric generation that's out there on that. So When we look at working with a lot of operators, not only here, but some on the international front, in some cases, if it's steam-related, and I'll just focus on that for a second, we are in discussions with a few utilities and power plants around the concept of just creating steam from coal or natural gas, but giving the option to capture the CO2. They may not need to capture the CO2 today, but But, you know, under a different environmental aspect or decision to curb more CO2 in the future, they would have the luxury to curb, capture, store, sequester the CO2 pretty cost effectively because it wouldn't require a lot of incremental capital or operational expense to make that happen compared to other technologies to capture the CO2. So, While we have momentum here, especially in the US with the basal generation demand, the abilities to use more fossil fuels, given the current administration aspect around it. Some of the plants and sites now are taking a close look at how Brightloop, either under feed studies or further engineering studies, would be able to meet or be a part of meeting that new baseload generation, but allow for them to hedge against the future if there is a point at which they needed, wanted, or there was some incentive or some other requirement to isolate the CO2, they could do that in a very economical fashion. You know, with a standard, you know, boiler in a coal plant or a standard combined cycle plant or whatever might be considered today, you know, you would have to add a post-combustion technology to capture the CO2. Brightloop eliminates the post-combustion aspect of that. So you can build out a power plant today, isolate CO2. If you want to let CO2 go in the atmosphere, got it. If you want to sequester the CO2, you can. So the point of it is that we give that optionality to the customer and not have a dramatic increase on any future CapEx, nor is there an impact on the parasitic load of the plant. So you keep the efficiency overall of that particular plant at bay. So it's a very intriguing technology. And, you know, with the momentum that we're seeing here around it, that concept around Bright Loop is becoming – uh realized and some of these opportunities and so we'll see where it goes but but clearly we're working with our customers on those um you know we're we are seeing in parallel um some opportunities around uh biomass to steam actually here in the us some of that with um an oxy combustion kind of carbon capture process where they're looking at those opportunities and we're in discussions on those And there are some other, you know, home waste or other aspects on power plants that are in discussions right now here in North America about providing steam for those plants to drive a turbine and providing baseload generation using, you know, alternate forms of fuel. So all of those are exciting for us, and we are in direct dialogue on specific projects across each of those areas right now. Rob Brown | Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets: Great. Thank you. I'll turn it over. Jayla | Conference Operator: At this time, there are no more questions for SMQ. I'd like to pass the conference back over to our hosting team for closing remarks. Sharon Brooks | Director of Communications and Marketing: This concludes our conference call today. A replay of the call will be available for a limited time on our website. Thank you for joining us. Jayla | Conference Operator: That will conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation and enjoy the rest of your day. jsPDF 3.0.3 D:20260606090023-00'00'