Time to buy Chicago Bridge & Iron?

Careful. It is very likely they will write-down Shaw at some point this year.

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I took the risk yesterday and I'm in. When everyone is headed for the door is sometimes a good time to walk in. Unless the place really does burn down. Then I'm screwed.

Financial rumors are concerning. But, I like their market exposure in energy infrastructure. And I still expect the economy to have an intermediate term boom including infrastructure spending domestically and abroad. Is China pushing forward on any nuclear power generating facilities?

At $6.5B it's probably too much to ask for a domestic behemoth to pull an inversion purchase. I just don't see a match.

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Somebody said it perfectly above, sometimes only takes a few things here and there to wreck a company. This company was a $400 million revenue company and bankrupt overnight. Story is still coming out, but I would be they lost their asses somehow on 1 or 2 key jobs.

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I'm trying to make sense. Help me here. How is this related to CB&I? Could this not also apply to every corporation on earth?

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Rumors are there are some serious financial issues. They keep getting work, but they keep doing shoddy work on the jobs they have. They have come out in the red on several large jobs recently.

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Good to know the Shaw influence is alive and well.

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Somebody said it perfectly above, sometimes only takes a few things here and there to wreck a company. This company was a $400 million revenue company and bankrupt overnight. Story is still coming out, but I would be they lost their asses somehow on 1 or 2 key jobs.

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What I'm saying is that company's of this size can mask problems even given their size. This company was literally the top contractor in the area on Friday and bankrupt on Monday. If there are rumors about CB&I, it won't necessarily take a long time for the stock to plummet. It could literally plummet to $0 with a BK filing (I have no inside knowledge of either situation at either company)>

Who bought last week? Still in the Low Hanging Fruit category...

Just a humble opinion from someone who worked for CB&I for almost 5 years until about January. No hard feelings, left for a better option so no knife to twist or anything like that in my opinion on them.

First off, big time construction companies are absolute roller coasters in the stock market. They're about as cyclical as they come and can drive an investor crazy. I wouldn't fault anyone for getting out now. Hell I got out in about December because I hate holding a company that is so far and away at its historical peak, especially in a market as volatile as construction.

On to their future, anyone expecting CB&I to go belly-up is batshit crazy. When I left I want to say they had like a $25 billion backlog not to mention cash cows like Gorgon LNG. They also have their legacy SPS division that is pretty much unbeatable and by the far the dominant player in the market.

Simply put, if you're going to have any sort of steel-plated tanks built on your project, you're almost certainly going to use CB&I. From a cost and schedule standpoint they're untouchable. They can fabricate faster and cheaper than most, but where they kill everyone is when it comes to construction of these units. No one can touch a CB&I tank crew on a hard-money job. It's the company's bread-winner for decades now and they have perfected every aspect of it. Their margin on these jobs is insane. That will never put them belly-up.

Another huge plus they have is the acquisition of Lummus Technology. CB&I is a company that has grown through aggressive acquisitions and Lummus is by far the most successful example of these moves. It's been an absolute home run and is now one of the most profitable sectors within CB&I.

My complaint with CB&I is its move into these global, large scale reimbursable jobs. This is a company whose every bone and fiber is traced back to hard money principles and techniques. In the past CB&I would be the tanking contractor but never the primary contractor on the balance of a facility. Nowadays, however, they're working as the primary contractor to compete with the Jacobs, Flours, and Foster Wheelers of the world. My experience on hard money vs reimbursable jobs within CB&I is so polar opposite it's hard to describe.

I also hated everything about he Shaw acquisition. I know why they did it. They thought they could parlay Shaw's US portfolio into a stronger presence inside the US (CB&I used to be something like 90% international) and they wanted their spool fabrication specialty/shops. Problem is Shaw has always been an overvalued shite-show, and (when I was there) the acquisition didn't seem to be going very smoothly at all.

I just think once again they're going further and further from their bread and butter. Granted once you're public it's about continually growing, meeting expectations and gaining shareholders, I understand that. I just think they had a perfect niche, no one could/can touch them in what they do well. Now they're going to have to grow-up and adapt their processes very quickly to continue getting these mega reimbursable contracts. There are a LOT of really smart people within the company, though. I hope they end up pulling it out, but I wouldn't advocate anyone buying them right now for a financial investment.