Troubled Unit of Halliburton May Go on Block

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/24/business/24halliburton.html?hp

HOUSTON, Sept. 23 - When Halliburton was awarded contracts worth more than $12 billion for work in Iraq, critics said that the company was using its political connections to reap big profits. But now, in a sign that those contracts are not providing the boon executives had expected from a subsidiary weighed down by other problems, Halliburton said Thursday that it was considering a sale of the business.

The unit, KBR, which provides military and oil field services, has been plagued by losses, by investigations into its activities in Nigeria and Iran and by sizable asbestos claims. Making matters worse, KBR's work in Iraq has not been as profitable as other activities and has contributed to a public relations nightmare for its parent. All of this has happened while KBR is seeking to emerge from bankruptcy protection.

The announcement by Halliburton, the nation's largest energy services company, indicated that KBR's problems have kept a lid on Halliburton's stock price and hindered its ambitions to benefit from elevated oil prices.

In a meeting here with investors, Halliburton's chief executive, David J. Lesar, said the company had become part of a "vicious campaign" of political attacks ahead of this year's presidential election. Mr. Lesar has lamented Halliburton's prominence as a target for critics of the Bush administration's handling of the war in Iraq, and he repeated some of those concerns on Thursday.

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Thereby completing A Perfect Circle of Evil.

and they can't make a profit? They're not paying income taxes because they're based in the Bahamas (or some other tax free country). Anyone know where all those Enron accountants went?

You hit the nail on the head - it's Enron accounting. Wonder why the insiders have been buying-buying-buying???

List of last two-years of insider transactions:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=HAL

... that the huge profits Halliburton received through KBR from government contracts were hidden from the bankruptcy master, inside or outside of Halliburton.

As I recall, Halliburton did something similar with an insurance company it owned. The insurance company underwrote company policies for recently acquired Dresser employees and when the asbestos claims started coming in, Halliburton sold the insurer and then expected them to take the huge losses (don't think that one was adjudicated in Halliburton's favor, but it may still be under appeal).

Creative accounting, war profiteering, stockholder abuse, fraud--nothing's too sleazy for the modern-day lean & mean American corporation, eh?

Laughing all the way to the bank, writing checks to the RNC.

bankrupt it or sell it.

dogs...(sorry to insult dogs)