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TORONTO, June 29, 2011 /CNW/ --
TORONTO, June 29, 2011 /CNW Telbec/ - CANDU Energy, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. (TSX: SNC), is pleased to announce
that it has agreed with the Government of Canada to acquire certain
assets of Atomic Energy of Canada's (AECL) commercial reactor division
for a purchase price of $15 million and royalty payments from future
new build and life extension projects. AECL will retain its past
liabilities.
Approximately 1,200 employees are expected to be transitioned from AECL
to CANDU Energy.
AECL is the Crown Corporation responsible for managing Canada's nuclear
energy research and development program. The commercial reactor
division began developing the CANDU technology in the 1950s, and has
built 34 reactors in seven countries. It has made a significant
contribution to a key Canadian sector but in its current form, AECL was
judged to be no longer sustainable. The privatization of AECL is an
important turning point to allow for a new competitive business model,
following years of challenges faced by AECL, and is an endeavour to
keep alive the Canadian nuclear industry.
"This acquisition will require concerted and coordinated effort on the
part of all stakeholders to work together. We will strive to make it a
success both for the people who have built it, and for our
shareholders," said Patrick Lamarre, Executive Vice-President Global
Power, SNC-Lavalin.
"The CANDU commercial reactor business will benefit greatly from
SNC-Lavalin's entrepreneurial capacity and global scale", said the
Honourable Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources. "The transaction
will place CANDU technology in proven, competent hands to be serviced
and deployed in Canada and abroad, meeting energy needs and stimulating
a supply chain located largely in Canada."
The successful support and development of this technology is critical to
sustaining Canada's nuclear industry, which currently employs more than
30,000 workers in 150 companies across Canada. For CANDU Energy, the
purchase of certain AECL assets means committing to preserving a
homegrown, proven technology with good potential. CANDU Energy will
focus on the new build, life extension and services product lines.
Lamarre continued, "Continuity and the quality of our services to the
CANDU customer base are our top priorities going forward in Canada and
internationally. With our expertise and experience in the nuclear
sector, we believe that CANDU Energy will allow us to open new markets
and capitalize on existing ones."
CANDU Energy will work towards completing the Enhanced CANDU reactor
(EC6) development program, with the support of the Government of Canada
of up to $75 million. CANDU Energy will target new build projects in
Ontario, Canada as well as in other countries around the world such as
Jordan, Romania, Argentina, Turkey and China. The new company will also
complete the remaining obligations under the ongoing life extension
projects at Bruce Power, Wolsong, Point Lepreau and Gentilly-2 through
subcontract service agreements with the Government of Canada.
The company will work hard to increase its share of the services
business, on obtaining new life extension projects and additional scope
on existing ones, and developing new build projects in order to build
the CANDU Energy backlog.
The acquisition is expected to be finalized in early fall 2011, subject
to the fulfillment of certain conditions including Competition Act
compliance and other administrative approvals.
SNC-Lavalin is one of the leading engineering and construction groups in
the world and a major player in the ownership of infrastructure, and in
the provision of operations and maintenance services. SNC-Lavalin has
offices across Canada and in over 35 other countries around the world,
and is currently working in some 100 countries. In business since 1911,
the Company celebrates its 100(th) anniversary in 2011. www.snclavalin.com.
To view this news release in HTML formatting, please use the following URL: http://www.cnw.ca/en/releases/archive/June2011/29/c2353.html
table class="cnwBorderedTable" border="1" cellspacing="0" valign="top" tr valign="top" td align="left" Media: /td td align="left" valign="top" Investors: /td /tr tr valign="top" td align="left" Leslie Quintonbr/ Vice-President, Global Corporate Communicationsbr/ SNC-Lavalin Group Inc.br/ 514-393-8000, ext. 7354br/ a href="mailto:leslie.quinton@snclavalin.com"leslie.quinton@snclavalin.com/a /td td align="left" valign="top" Denis Jasminbr/ Vice-President, Investor Relationsbr/ SNC-Lavalin Group Inc.br/ 514-393-8000, ext. 7553br/ a href="http://denis.jasmin@snclavalin.com"denis.jasmin/aa href="mailto:denis.jasmin@snclavalin.com"@snclavalin.com/a /td /tr /table p /p