SNC-Lavalin prepared to go it alone in AECL bid following OMERS withdrawal

By Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press

CALGARY - SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. is prepared to go it alone in its bid for Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., now that its pension fund purchase partner has bowed out of the process.

The Montreal-based engineering giant (TSX:SNC) is not looking to line up a new partner at this time, chief executive Pierre Duhaime told reporters following a speech to a Calgary business audience Thursday.

SNC-Lavalin confirmed in February it had teamed up with The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, or OMERS, to buy the maker of the Candu nuclear reactors.

OMERS, the pension fund for Ontario municipal government workers, walked away in April.

"We continue to be interested. We continue to have our discussions," he said, noting a non-disclosure agreement limits what he can say while negotiations are ongoing.

Duhaime said he's optimistic Prime Minister Stephen Harper's freshly elected majority Conservative government will light a fire under what has been a long, drawn out process over the sale of AECL.

"Having... the government back to work could help," he said.

Duhaime has not yet met with newly appointed Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, and can't until negotiations have wrapped up.

The nuclear crisis at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, triggered by a devastating tsunami and earthquake in March, is not likely to drive up the cost of acquiring AECL, Duhaime said.

There could be additional safety measures that arise from the Japan disaster, but he doesn't see those being too onerous in the case of AECL.

"What we have in Canada is very, very safe already and the things we have to have are not so huge."

SNC Lavalin manages a number of buildings in Slave Lake, Alta., a community of about 7,000 that was badly damaged by wildfires this month.

The company said the Slave Lake Group Home and Garage was damaged by the fires, but that the rest of the seven buildings it maintains and operates in the northern Alberta town, including the RCMP detachment post office and a handful of provincial government buildings, are intact.

Once residents return to the town, about one-third of which has been scorched, SNC-Lavalin will have a better idea of what role it may play in the rebuilding.

"We're dealing with the Alberta government almost on a daily basis," Chynoweth said.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version said SNC didn't know which buildings it manages in Slave Lake, Alta., were damaged by recent wildfires.