Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Thank you, Crystalyn, and thanks to everyone for joining us on Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises' second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. I'm Sharyn Brooks, Director of Communications. Joining the call today are Kenneth Young, B&W's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Cameron Frymyer, 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 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 a discussion of adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income, should not be considered superior to or a substitute for the comparable GAAP measures. A reconciliation of historical non-GAAP measures can be found in our second quarter 2026 earnings release published earlier today, and in our company overview presentation filed on Form 8-K, which is posted on the investor relations section of our website at babcock.com. Please also see our second quarter 2026 earnings release published on August 10, 2026 for further information regarding our bookings and backlog. I will now turn the call over to Kenny.

Thanks, Sharyn. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us on our second quarter 2026 earnings call. We are pleased to report another strong quarter highlighted by robust financial results and active project development and continued operational momentum in our core business and further strategic debt reduction and stock repurchase. During the second quarter, Babcock & Wilcox continued to benefit from the growing need for reliable electrical generation from all sources of power consumption, including utilities, industrial, and data center customers. These tailwinds drove strong operating results during the quarter and led us to raise our full year 2026 adjusted EBITDA target range from $80 million to $105 million. As excited as we are about the increasing opportunities in new utility, industrial, and AI, and data center power generation project opportunities, we're equally excited about the strong results in our core projects as well as our parts and services businesses.

These businesses have and continue to be strong cash generators for the company and continue to deliver significant growth each quarter due to the increased demand from coal and natural gas utilization, especially in the U.S. Our quarterly financial results were highlighted by revenue, net income, and adjusted EBITDA, all of which exceeded both company and consensus expectations. in the second quarter of 2026, our pipeline, bookings, and backlog saw significant development as well. Our total pipeline is now over $14 billion, including 4-6 gigawatts worth of power generation opportunities. Our bookings and backlog surged year-over-year, fueled by our core business growth and continued development of our Base Electron project in North Dakota. In the first half of 2026, we had bookings of $2.7 billion, which was an increase of more than 1,058% compared to the first half of 2025.

Additionally, our backlog was $2.6 billion in the second quarter of 2026, which was a 533% increase compared to the second quarter of 2025. Strong global demand for B&W's technologies, together with increasing investment in power generation, continues to reinforce our positive outlook. We are focused on executing our strategic priorities, delivering on our current pipeline, and maintaining the operational and financial flexibility needed to capitalize on future growth opportunities. Turning to our core business, our parts and services continue to excel, with demand for reliable baseload power growing across North America and global markets as well. This accelerating demand is encouraging utilities to invest in the refurbishment, recommissioning, and continued operation of existing coal fire generation assets to support grid reliability and meet future load growths.

This development 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 initial data center project with Base Electron is progressing ahead of expectations and on budget. Manufacturing of the boilers, steam turbines, and other long lead time components continues to advance quickly and efficiently, helping to deliver reliable, high capacity energy generation on the fast track timeline required by AI data center customers. Base Electron has submitted its conditional use permit application, and we are planning for most of the on-site construction, including civil and mechanical, to start in the first part of 2027 and turbines and boiler components delivered after construction begins.

The growth of AI-driven data centers is creating significant opportunities for B&W, with more than 4-6 gigawatts in new opportunities added from hyperscalers, developers, and utility customers in our pipeline. We remain in active discussions with multiple AI data center customers utilizing coal and natural gas, and we expect a second data center project to move in full notice to proceed this year. In anticipation of this next data center project, B&W has secured the manufacturing reservation rights for an additional one gigawatt of steam turbines from Siemens Energy. A total of 20 50-megawatt steam turbines will be produced with the first generator sets being delivered within 12-14 months thereafter, and additional deliveries to follow on a regular basis. This will help accelerate deployments for future B&W data center projects.

As B&W continues to expand, we are increasing our workforce to support the growth in our hiring, in our engineering project, and business development organizations, while increasing the availability of qualified, skilled welders and electricians. As the global power demand continues its climb, availability of highly skilled labor, especially in the U.S., is in short supply. Specifically, this negatively impacted efficiencies and resulted in higher direct costs on a specific construction project for B&W during the second quarter. We took immediate action in working with the unions to immediately increase qualified labor availability through incentives, rehires, and delayed retirements to ensure qualified, skilled labor is available going forward. Despite these U.S. industry-wide issues, we successfully navigated these labor impacts while still delivering robust top-line results and strong EBITDA growth as well.

We don't expect labor shortages to be persistent issues, as our near-term focus within our construction business has shifted towards variable price construction projects, and we are increasing our recruiting and training efforts across many disciplines as well. Our BrightLoop initiatives continue to move forward as we advance the commercialization of our technologies to enable cost-effective energy production. The commercial-scale demonstration of BrightLoop at our Massillon, Ohio, project site remains a strategic priority. We are continuing fabrication of major components for the facility while we prepare the site for major construction activities to begin yet this year. We have included a few photos of the various BrightLoop reactors in the fabrication process in our company overview presentation on our website. The operation of Massillon in late 2027 will position BrightLoop as a commercially available option for energy production as the demand for new generation assets continues to grow.

We believe these efforts will strengthen B&W's leadership in low-carbon energy solutions and support our long-term growth. I'll now turn the call over to Cameron to discuss the financial details of the second quarter for 2026.

Cameron? Thanks, Kenny. I am pleased to review our second quarter 2026 financial results, further details of which can be found in the Form 10-Q that was filed with the SEC this afternoon.

Our second quarter 2026 consolidated revenues were $319.7 million, which is a 130% increase compared to the second quarter of 2025. Net income was $14.3 million for the second quarter, a $72.8 million increase compared to the second quarter of 2025. Finally, adjusted EBITDA was $21.8 million for the second quarter, a $7.9 million increase compared to the second quarter of 2025. These top-line metrics capture the recent growth we've seen across our businesses and illustrate B&W's positive trajectory moving forward. In the first half of 2026, revenues were $534.1 million, which is a significant increase compared to the revenue of $287.5 million in the first half of 2025.

This is primarily driven by an increase in large project volume, including $131.7 million from Base Electron, and the growing need for electricity from fossil fuels, driven by demand from AI, data centers, and expanding economies. Our core parts and services continue to perform well during the first half of the year. Net loss in the first half of 2026 was $62.7 million, compared to a net loss of $80.5 million in the first half of 2025. Net loss in the first half of 2026 is attributed to $77.4 million of non-cash warrants and other stock-related costs that were recorded this year due to the increase in our stock performance. Excluding the impact of these specific warrants and other stock-related costs, B&W reported adjusted net income of $14.7 million in the first half of 2026.