Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (GLDD) today reported financial results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2018.
As of December 31, 2018, GLDD concluded that it intends to sell the Environmental and Infrastructure (“E&I”) business during the first half of 2019. Based on this decision, this business has been classified as an asset held for sale and all results of this business have been reflected as discontinued operations as of December 31, 2018.
Consequently, the financial results for continuing operations reported within this earnings release do not include the E&I segment.
Chief Executive Officer Lasse Petterson commented, “ 2018 was a transformational year at Great Lakes. We saw an increase of $26.4 million in net income from continuing operations and $65.2 million in Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations . These significant improvements were a result of strong domestic dredging performance as well as the success of our asset rationalization and cost reduction program. ”
“ As we finished the fourth quarter of 2018, port deepening projects in Charleston, Tampa, Jacksonville and on the Delaware River were in full operation with work continuing into 2019 and 2020. On December 31, 2018, we were awarded the Corpus Christi Port Deepening project, adding a fifth deepening project to our already strong backlog ,” added Lasse Petterson.
Petterson also said that during 2018, the company was awarded a total of $455.5 million in capital deepening projects and ended the year with total backlog of $707.1 million . “We expect this strong domestic dredging market to continue for the next three to four years as our focus remains on port deepening projects as well as coastal protection after the heavy hurricane seasons of the past two years .”
According to GLDD, the domestic dredging bid market remained strong during the fourth quarter of 2018 with a total bid market for the year of $1.8 billion. For the year, GLDD was awarded 45% of the overall bid market consisting of the following types of work: