Fluor To Offload $1B Worth Of Business, Real Estate Assets And Close Regional Offices

Fluor Corp. is selling $1B worth of business and real estate assets to raise funds as the company limits its focus to providing engineering, construction and maintenance services in core markets.

The Irving-based publicly traded company plans to sell its construction equipment rental firm, AMECO, and its government business along with surplus real estate and non-core investments. 

As part of the realignment, Fluor intends to close and realign its regional offices. Its website lists 60 regional offices around the globe and 68 regional offices for its subsidiaries and joint ventures. Twelve of the subsidiary offices are for AMECO. The company has not disclosed details on which offices will close, or even how many.

The maneuver is expected to produce $1B from asset sales alone, and generate overhead cost savings of $100M.

Flour also slashed its quarterly dividend to 10 cents per share, effective at the company's next quarterly dividend declaration. 

Fluor classified this transition as a move back toward profitability. 

“Together with our Board of Directors and outside advisors, we took an extensive and comprehensive look at our broader business to determine the best strategic path to return the company to consistent profitable growth,” Fluor Corp. CEO Carlos Hernandez said in a public statement. 

Fluor was tapped by Texas Central to do the construction planning and sequencing of the high-speed rail project between Dallas and Houston. While Fluor has completed its portion of pre-development, the project is still working its way through the pre-development and approval processes and last week named a new civil engineering contractor, Salini-Lane.

CORRECTION, SEPT. 27, 12:55 P.M. CT: Fluor's relationship with the Texas Central project has been clarified.