Waste Management Q2 Profit Down; To Sell Waste-to-energy Unit For $1.94 Bln

(RTTNews) - Integrated waste services provider Waste Management, Inc. (WM) Tuesday reported second-quarter net income attributable to the company of $210 million or $0.45 per share, lower than $244 million or $0.52 per share in the prior year.

Results for the recent quarter included about $69 million of after-tax charges, mainly related to divestiture of operations in Puerto Rico.

Excluding the impacts, net income was $279 million or $0.60 per share, compared to adjusted earnings per share of $0.54 in 2013.

On average, 11 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.59 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Operating revenues edged up 1 percent to $3.56 billion from $3.53 billion a year earlier. Excluding a negative $14 million in foreign currency translation, revenue would have increased 1.4 percent, the firm said. Analysts estimated revenues of $3.61 billion for the quarter.

Provision for income taxes advanced to $180 million from $127 million in the preceding year.

David Steiner, President and Chief Executive Officer of Waste Management said, "...Our strong performance on these metrics makes us confident that we will meet or exceed our full-year adjusted earnings per share guidance of between $2.30 and $2.35."

The company said its guidance does not take into account the potential divestiture of its waste-to-energy operations.

Separately, Waste Management said it has agreed to sell Wheelabrator Technologies Inc, or WTI to an affiliate of Energy Capital Partners for $1.94 billion in cash.

Wheelabrator owns or operates 17 waste-to-energy facilities and four independent power-producing facilities in the United States that process over 7.5 million tons of waste and have a combined electric generating capacity of 853 megawatts.

In conjunction with the sale, Waste Management will enter into a long-term agreement to supply waste to certain WTI facilities upon closing.