AKRON, Ohio–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, announced that on May 7, 2021 it closed an underwritten registered public offering of 4,000,000 shares of its 7.75% Series A Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock, par value $0.01 per share with a liquidation preference of $25.00 per share, at an offering price of $25.00, for gross proceeds of approximately $100 million before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by the Company.
B&W granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 600,000 shares of the Preferred Stock in connection with the offering, which option remains in effect.
The Preferred Stock is expected to begin trading on the NYSE under the symbol “BW PRA” within 30 business days of the closing date.
The offering resulted in net proceeds of approximately $95.7 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions, but before expenses. B&W intends to use the net proceeds of the offering for general corporate purposes, including clean energy growth initiatives, potential future acquisitions and reduction of net leverage.
Dividends on the Preferred Stock will be paid when, as and if declared by the Company’s Board of Directors at the annual rate of 7.75% of the $25.00 liquidation preference per year (equivalent to $1.9375 per year). Dividends on the Preferred Stock will be payable quarterly when, as and if declared in arrears on March 31, June 30, September 30 and December 31 of each year. The first dividend on the Preferred Stock, when, as and if declared, will be paid on June 30, 2021, for less than a full quarter after the initial issuance of the Preferred Stock and covering the period from the first date the Preferred Stock is issued and sold through, but not including, June 30, 2021.
“We continue to see new opportunities globally for both organic and inorganic growth of our renewable and environmental technologies, including waste-to-energy, hydrogen production and carbon capture technologies with the potential to drive a world-wide industrial transformation to a green environmental future,” said Kenneth Young, B&W’s Chairman and CEO. “We are also seeing acquisition opportunities within the thermal services sector with the potential to achieve immediate synergies and higher margins, leveraging the strength of our experienced management team.”
“Our significant cost reductions and strengthened balance sheet put B&W in a very favorable position to compete globally on mature and emerging technologies,” Young continued. “Looking forward, we remain focused on increasing the value of our stock and returns to shareholders as we profitably grow our Renewable, Environmental and Thermal segments, including deploying our waste-to-energy and carbon capture technologies to help meet critical climate goals, and pursuing our more than $5 billion 3-year pipeline of identified project opportunities.”
B. Riley Securities, Inc. served as the lead book-running manager for the offering. D.A. Davidson & Co., Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc., National Securities Corporation and William Blair & Company acted as joint book-running managers for the offering. Kingswood Capital Markets, division of Benchmark Investments, Inc. acted as lead manager for the offering. Aegis Capital Corp., Boenning & Scattergood, Inc., Huntington Securities, Inc., Incapital LLC and Wedbush Securities Inc. acted as co-managers for the offering.
The Preferred Stock was offered under an effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3, which was initially filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on April 22, 2021 and declared effective by the SEC on April 30, 2021. The offering was made only by means of the prospectus supplement dated May 4, 2021 and the accompanying base prospectus dated April 30, 2021. Copies of the prospectus supplement and the accompanying base prospectus for the offering may be obtained on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov, or by contacting B. Riley Securities by telephone at (703) 312-9580, or by email at prospectuses@brileyfin.com.
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, sale or solicitation would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
Contacts
Investor Contact:
Megan Wilson
Vice President, Corporate Development & Investor Relations
Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises
704.625.4944 | investors@babcock.com
Media Contact:
Ryan Cornell
Public Relations
Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises
330.860.1345 | rscornell@babcock.com