Westinghouse owner revisits sale
CRANBERRY TWP — A year after first indicating its interest in selling a minority stake in Westinghouse Electric Co., the nuclear energy company’s owners have publicly discussed “monetizing” the Cranberry Township-based company.
Brookfield Business Partners, which owns Westinghouse, said in a May securities filing it is interested in selling its interest in Westinghouse after stating last May it might sell a minority of its investment in the company.
Sebastien Bouchard, vice president for corporate communications with Brookfield, did not respond to a request for comment.
Brookfield CEO Cyrus Madon said in a statement that monetizing Westinghouse would help the business.
“We had a successful start to the year, generating strong financial performance and committing approximately $1.6 billion of equity across seven new investments,” Madon said in the statement. “We also completed the creation of our paired corporate entity, BBUC (Brookfield Business Corp.), which should support growth of our ownership base. Our focus is on closing our announced acquisitions, progressing the monetization of our interest in Westinghouse and accelerating initiatives to surface meaningful value for our business.”
Last May, Madon said the company was “in no rush to sell” Westinghouse, and noted the investment firm would be interested in maintaining a controlling interest in the nuclear power company “for a long period of time.”
Brookfield, which is based in Canada, owns 100% of the voting shares in Westinghouse, and owns roughly 45% of the company as a whole. It purchased Westinghouse Electric from Toshiba for about $4.6 billion in 2018 after the power company filed for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy.
Speaking with investors last year, Madon said the decision to sell or retain Brookfield’s interest in Westinghouse would come down to the amount of money Brookfield could receive in a sale versus the cash flow it receives by maintaining its interest.
Brookfield made a profit off its Westinghouse purchase quickly. In February 2021, Madon said the investment firm recaptured its initial equity investment in Westinghouse, having received more than $370 million in dividends in just 2 1/2 years.
