KBR Files Initial Public Offering

[NVMojo]

DALLAS (AP) - The KBR Inc., a unit of Halliburton Co., filed an initial public offering Friday to sell up to $550 million in common stock.

KBR is a global engineering, construction and services company supporting the energy, petrochemicals, government services and civil infrastructure sectors.

Houston-based Halliburton Co. plans to sell just under 20 percent of its stake in KBR, which has diluted the company's financial results and drawn criticism of its multibillion contracts in Iraq.

Analysts have said spinning off the unit will let Halliburton concentrate on its oilfield business. Halliburton shares rose 5 percent on the day when it announced plans for the IPO.

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Halliburton was led from 1995 to 2000 by Vice President Dick Cheney, and it has been criticized since the beginning of the Iraq war for its large government contracts, some of them awarded without a bidding process.

Recently, the Army decided to pay KBR all but $9 million out of $222 million in disputed costs on a $2.4 billion contract to deliver fuel and repair oil equipment in Iraq.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/invest-corp/2006/apr/14/041403317.html

[BrklynLiberal]

1. This ripoff of the taxpayers should be right up there with the Silverado

Bank deal.

[FloridaPat]

2. Who gets the no-bid contracts now? KBR or Halliburton?

Inquiring investors want to know!