Even before spin-off stock of Babcock & Wilcox starts trading on the New Stock Exchange under its new ticker symbol, BWC,  the company is showing signs of what’s ahead with its recently announced alliance with Bechtel for small modular nuclear power plants,  (SMR=small modular reactor).

Babcock & Wilcox has been successfully putting nuclear reactors in demanding situations for years.  Their small modular reactors have kept the nuclear submarine and surface ships of the US Navy going  efficiently, safely, and largely unnoticed for decades.  Linking up with Bechtel to take this experience and skill out of the warships and out into the world certainly seems like a good idea on the surface of it.

For more details from someone who focuses on nuclear power generation issues, you might find this linked blog post on the Babcock & Wilcox/Bechtel Power venture.

As far as stock spin-off investing goes, we can only hope that most people don’t even know who Babcock & Wilcox are and what they do and only relate Bechtel to involvement in Boston’s “Big Dig”.  If that’s the case, with any luck they will bail out of BWC early, giving us a chance to get in at a good price.

We need every kilowatt we can scrape up in the future and when it comes to nuclear power generation, these two know what they are doing.

Tags: Babcock & Wilcox, Bechtel Power, nuclear power, spin-off stock, stock spin-off

McDermott International announced in December 2009 that intended to do a stock spin-off of its Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation unit.  Yesterday they said that the spin-off is on track .

Their financials also showed that the offshore oil & gas services did very well while power generation lagged, so it would appear that casting off the power generation unit promises to a positive for the parent as well as the spin-off stock.

The pacing of this process illustrates what is a real positive in spin-offs for me in that it doesn’t happen fast.  There is time to read the filings and figure out what you want to do.  Being front run by a computer that has made its decision before you can read the title of the press release seems unlikely and with any luck the guys with those fancy computers will go somewhere else.

As for Babcock & Wilcox, this looks like a classic case where they are being given a chance to show what they can do on their own.  Let’s just hope the structure of the stock spinoff gives them a fighting chance to succeed and prosper.  You may want to look at the B & W website to make up your own mind, but these people look to be in the right place at the right time on several fronts to me.

Tags: Babcock & Wilcox, McDermott International, MDR, spin-off stock, stock spin-off