TMCnet News

Perma-Fix plans to buy Nuvotec, PEcoS
[May 01, 2007]

Perma-Fix plans to buy Nuvotec, PEcoS


(Tri-City Herald (Kennewick, WA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) May 1--Perma-Fix Environmental Services has reached an agreement to purchase Nuvotec to obtain its subsidiary, Pacific EcoSolutions, or PEcoS, in Richland, for $11.6 million.



Perma-Fix signed a letter of intent to buy Nuvotec in October and Monday announced that a definitive agreement on the sale had been reached. The purchase could be completed around the end of May.

"The Perma-Fix acquisition of PEcoS creates a unique combination of facilities and state-of-the-art technologies, which will address a much broader range of waste at the Hanford site," said Bob Ferguson, chairman of Nuvotec and PEcoS, in a statement.


PEcoS uses a thermal system to treat low-level radioactive waste and similar waste mixed with hazardous chemicals at its site adjacent to Hanford. Perma-Fix has additional technologies to treat the same types of waste.

Perma-Fix plans to issue $2 million in shares of Perma-Fix common stock and $2.5 million in notes payable over four years to Nuvotec shareholders that qualify as accredited investors. In addition, $2.5 million will be given to accredited and nonaccredited investors. Up to $4.6 million will be paid to Nuvotec shareholders depending on revenues over the first four years of merged operations.

Perma-Fix also will assume up to $9.4 million in Nuvotec debt plus any normal expenses incurred by PEcoS.

Perma-Fix is interested in PEcoS to expand its presence on the West Coast and because of its close ties to Hanford.

"The Hanford site is one of the most expensive of all the DOE's nuclear weapons facilities to remediate, creating further opportunities for the company to expand market share," said Louis Centofanti, chairman of Perma-Fix, in a statement.

"Having begun treating higher level radioactive waste at our Oak Ridge, Tenn., facility, we look forward to extending these capabilities to Hanford," he said.

Perma-Fix's expertise will benefit Hanford cleanup, Ferguson said.

Perma-Fix already has treated Hanford waste, including drums of uranium shavings packed in oil that were discovered in a Hanford burial ground in 1998. It also has treated equipment and protective clothing contaminated by work with Hanford's 177 underground tanks of radioactive waste.

The sale is contingent on the transfer of PEcoS licenses with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington state departments of Health and Ecology. It also must be approved by a Nuvotec shareholder vote.

Ferguson is expected to serve on the board of Perma-Fix, a national environmental services company based in Atlanta, which has increased its focus on nuclear services. Perma-Fix also offers industrial waste management services and has nine major waste treatment facilities across the nation.

Not included in the sale are Nuvotec's majority ownership of Vivid Learning Systems and its partial ownership in two other companies. Washington Group will occupy the former Nuvotec offices.

Copyright (c) 2007, Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]