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EnergySolutions added long-awaited detail Wednesday to its plan for an initial public offering.
The company is telling the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that in all, 30 million shares of stock will be sold, largely to raise money to help pay off hundreds of millions of dollars in debts and millions of dollars in obligations to officers.
EnergySolutions is selling 11.85 million shares and its controlling stockholder, ENV Holdings LLC, is selling 18.15 million shares.
And, if buyers pony up the $20 per share the company is projecting, the Salt Lake City-based company expects to have proceeds of $213 million, according to the registration statement filed Wednesday.
The move is the latest step in the company's transformation from operating a homegrown radioactive dump into becoming a sophisticated player in the international nuclear-services industry that's doing nearly $2 billion annually in business.
"We are a leading provider of specialized, technology-based nuclear services to government and commercial customers," says a summary at the beginning of the company's 300-page statement.
"We also own and operate strategic facilities that complement our services and uniquely position us to provide a single-source solution to our customers."
Papers say the expected offering price will be $19 to $20, but it could be more or less, depending on what investors are thinking the day shares go on sale on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "ES." That probably will happen in December.
EnergySolutions started out in 1988 operating a low-level radioactive and hazardous waste disposal site built around a mile-square waste pile in Tooele created by the U.S. Energy Department's cleanup of the old Vitro mill tailings from the Salt Lake Valley.
The latest filing offers unprecedented information about its finances and plans.
For instance, no one has known since the company's beginning as Envirocare of Utah what its revenues are and how much profit its facility generated from year to year. As Envirocare has morphed into EnergySolutions over the past two years, under the ownership of Lindsay Goldberg & Bessmer, Peterson Partners and Creamer Investments, its reach has expanded to 40 states and overseas, its payroll has grown from about 250 to more than 5,000, and its revenues have grown from $227 million to more than $1.8 billion in 2006.
But, part of the company's expansion has included debt, which totals more than $925 million. Profits were $62 million last year.
In contrast, for 2004, its last full year as Envirocare, the company's profits were more than $111 million, which amounted to a profit margin of nearly 50 percent.
Nearly $7 million of the proceeds will go to current and former managers, according to the SEC papers. EnergySolutions Chief Executive Officer Steve Creamer earned more than $8 million last year in salary and other compensation.
The company noted that potential shareholders face risks, including the prospect of political and community objections to its operations.
At the same time, the filings point out EnergySolutions' many strengths:
* It has "life-of-plant" contracts to furnish nuclear services, including cleanup and disposal for 84 of the 104 operating reactors in the U.S.
* More than 95 percent of all the commercial radioactive waste in the nation goes to the disposal site in Tooele County, where there is estimated capacity for another 19 years of disposal, or to one in South Carolina that the company purchased last year.
* It manages 10 nuclear sites in the United Kingdom, including four reactors and 18 reactors that are being decommissioned.
* The U.S. Energy Department plans to offer $54.7 billion in contracts in the next five years and the U.K. is expected to offer another $6.4 billion in contracts - all of which EnergySolutions has a good shot at landing.
* It landed the $98.4 million Atlas tailings cleanup contract in June to remove radioactive tailings from the banks of the Colorado River just north of Moab.
The company notes it is not involved in any "material" legal proceedings, but points out that "the Department of Justice has made informal inquiries regarding the antitrust implications or our life-of-plant contracts. We have met with the Department of Justice and provided them with all the information and documents that they have requested." The company said it does not expect the outcome to affect operations or the bottom line.
The deal
* 30 million shares: Expected to sell
* $19 to $20: Expected offering price
* ES: Ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange
* December: When IPO will probably happen