Energy Winner: USEC Spikes
BETHESDA, MD. (
) -- Nuclear power plant supplier
USEC
(USU)
is up by 14% on Monday morning after beating earnings estimates and guiding higher for 2010.
USEC guided to $2 billion in revenues in 2010, above analyst estimates of $1.8 billion to $1.9 billion.
In the fourth quarter, the supplier of low enriched uranium for nuclear power plants earned 31 cents per share, beating analyst estimates of 16 cents per share. In the fourth quarter of 2008, USEC had earned 16 cents a share.
Fourth quarter revenues of $467 million also beat analyst expectations of $444 million in revenues.
Full year 2009 income of $58.5 million also beat analyst expectations of $52 million.
USEC announced a new $225 million credit facility led by Wells Fargo concurrent with the fourth quarter earnings.
The biggest drag on USEC's performance will continue to be the financing for its American Centrifuge program, an advanced uranium enrichment centrifuge that USEC has been working on since 2002.
John Welch, USEC president and CEO said, "Our operations were strong and total revenue exceeded $2 billion for the first time... But it was also a year with disappointments regarding the American Centrifuge program. While we made progress in several important areas, we believed our application for a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy was on track for a conditional commitment in 2009. That didn't happen."
USEC applied to the Department of Energy's (DOE) Loan Guarantee Program as the path for obtaining $2 billion in U.S. government guaranteed debt financing for American Centrifuge, but on in August, the DOE and USEC announced an agreement to delay a final review of the loan guarantee application until at least early 2010.
Construction of the USEC plant infrastructure and work to finalize the balance-of-plant design ceased in August. However, USEC continues to incur costs associated with demobilization.
-- Reported by Eric Rosenbaum in New York.
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