Nuclear cleanup services provider Perma-Fix Environmental Services on Wednesday reported a net loss of $13.99 million for 2016, but said the fourth quarter signaled a rebound in the company’s business.
The loss was a steep dive from a $1.9 million net loss in 2015. Net loss attributed to common stockholders plunged from $1.1 million to $13.4 million on a year-over-year basis.
The company’s overall revenue fell from $62.4 million in 2015 to $51.2 million last year, and from $15.1 million to $13.5 million in their respective fourth quarters. Revenue numbers were down in both the services and treatment business branches; the medical segment continued to produce no revenue.
However, the company earned $110,000 in net income for the fourth quarter, up from a $292,000 loss in the same period of 2015. And other numbers were strong as well, executives said.
“We’re very pleased to report solid fourth-quarter results. I believe we’re back on track with positive and improving cash flow, in fact we came in ahead of guidance with $1.9 million in adjusted EBITDA versus a forecast of about $1 million,” CEO Lou Centofanti said during the company’s earnings conference call. “These results are a significant departure from what we saw in the first nine months of ’16.”
As he did in Perma-Fix’s previous conference call in November, Centofanti noted that a large number of shipments of waste for treatment were delayed, and federal spending constrained, across the industry in the run-up to the election. However, waste shipments picked up afterward, he said.
There is additional cause for optimism, executives said, highlighting the Trump administration’s proposal to boost spending for Department of Energy legacy nuclear cleanup to $6.5 billion for fiscal 2018. Perma-Fix also has about 15 open bids on contracts, primarily from government agencies such as DOE, and is developing another five or six procurement bids each week, said Executive Vice President Mark Duff.
