FW notes positive market trends

Hamilton, Bermuda -- Foster Wheeler Ltd has posted earnings [EBITDA] for 2005 of $182.1 million -- excluding the charges -- on sales of $2.2 billion down from $2.7 billion the previous year. Compared to 2004, however, new orders last year rose by over 70% to $4.2 billion and backlog increased by over 80% to $3.7 billion, noted Raymond Milchovich, FW's chairman, president and CEO, adding that most of the company's markets are already in, or are entering, an investment phase.

The "operational performance of our global Engineering and Construction operations in Continental Europe and the UK, the much-improved performance of our Global Power operations in Europe and the solid performance of all of our other operations contributed to the significant increase in EBITDA in these two segments in 2005,"said Milchovich.