speaker
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.

speaker
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.

speaker
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?

Disclaimer

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Q4BW 2025

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