Walter Energy
Walter Energy Inc. is a publicly-traded coal and natural gas company headquartered at the Galleria Tower in Hoover's Riverchase Galleria. Victor Patrick is CEO and George Richmond is president and COO for the company.
The company's history dates back to the 1946 founding of Jim Walter Homes by Tampa, Florida builder Jim Walter. Walter added a mortgage company in 1958 and acquired fiberboard manufacturer Celotex in 1962. It acquired Birmingham's U. S. Pipe and Foundry Company in 1969 and began development of the coal mines on the Blue Creek Seam in Brookwood in 1972.
In 1987 investment group KKR brought the company into private ownership as Walter Industries, Inc. and began a "de-conglomeration" by spinning off the fiberboard, paper, marble quarrying and various other operations. Litigation over asbestos claims led to bankruptcy proceedings, but were eventually settled, emerging under reorganization in 1995. Once again a public corporation, Walter Industries' stock re-appeared on the New York Stock Exchange in 1997.
In 2005 the company acquired Mueller Water Products and made U. S. Pipe a subsidiary of that company, which was spun off a year later. The company acquired Tuscaloosa Resources in 2007. In 2008 a financial crisis in the mortgage industry led to the demise of the Jim Walter Homes subsidiary. The Walter Investment Management Corporation was spun off the next year and the remaining resource companies rebranded as Walter Energy.
All of the company's Jim Walter Resources, Walter Coke and Walter Minerals operations are located in Alabama, predominantly in Tuscaloosa County. The company shares ownership of the Black Warrior Methane Corporation with El Paso Energy (formerly Birmingham's Southern Natural Gas). In all the company employs about 2,100 people, mostly in Alabama, and has annual revenues of about $1 billion.
The company announced plans to move its corporate headquarters from Tampa to Hoover in late 2009. In February 2010 Patrick announced his retirement. In December of that year, Walter Energy acquired the Western Coal Corporation of British Columbia, Canada in a $3.3 billion deal. The acquisition left the planned headquarters move up in the air.
References
- Tomberlin, Michael (September 10, 2009) "Walter Energy moving HQ to Birmingham." Birmingham News
- Cooper, Lauren B. (February 22, 2010) "Walter Energy CEO to retire." Birmingham Business Journal
- Hubbard, Russell (December 4, 2010) "Major merger has Walter Energy reconsidering its move to Birmingham." Birmingham News
External links
- Walter Energy website