Skip to main content

A flock of birds line electric wires.Erin Pence/The Associated Press

CVTech Group Inc. dropped to a loss in the fourth quarter as it booked a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $2.9-million.

The company, which builds and maintains electrical transmission lines in Quebec and the eastern United States, said Wednesday that losses were $1.4-million, or two cents per share.

That compared to a profit of $3-million, or four cents per share, in the same period ended Dec. 31, 2010.

Consolidated revenues grew to $71.6-million from $69.7-million.

For the year, CVTech posted a profit of $3.1-million, which was a third of the $9.4-million in earnings reported for fiscal 2010. Revenue was $252.5-million from $259.9-million.

"Given the relatively difficult economic context, results for 2011 were satisfactory," said president and chief executive officer Andre Laramee in a release.

CVTech said its order backlog at the end of the quarter was $279-million, but excluded contracts announced in January that are valued at more than $50-million.

"Our subsidiaries continued to develop their markets and made considerable progress in segments with high growth potential, including renewable energy," Mr. Laramee said of the full-year performance.

"However, the uncertain global economic climate has fostered a wait-and-see attitude in the corporation's markets, which has to some extent slowed the awarding of large contracts."

CVTech is a management company that provides services to the electric power industry for the maintenance of transmission lines and also provides maintenance and construction services to utility and heavy industrial markets.

Interact with The Globe