CB&I’s acquisition of Petrofac Asset Solutions in early 2026 marks the first major deal since the company separated from McDermott International in 2024 — completing a six-year journey from ill-fated merger through two restructurings and a $475m buyout. The mcdermott cb&i story is one of the more instructive corporate collapses in recent energy infrastructure history.
McDermott CB&I: The 2018 Merger
In December 2017, McDermott International — then carrying a market capitalisation of $1.9bn — announced an all-stock acquisition of Chicago Bridge & Iron (CB&I), a business worth $1.7bn. CB&I shareholders received 0.82 McDermott shares per CB&I share. The combined enterprise value was approximately $6bn.
The strategic logic was vertical integration: a single EPCI contractor spanning onshore and offshore across the full oil and gas lifecycle. What the deal underplayed was CB&I’s condition at close. CB&I revenues were $6.7bn in 2017 against McDermott’s $3.0bn — CB&I was the larger company — but its gross margin had collapsed from 12.7% in 2015 to 0.1% in 2017. Legacy problem contracts, including Stone & Webster nuclear projects and a misplaced bet on coal technology, were generating persistent cost overruns. McDermott was acquiring a bigger but fundamentally impaired business.
Cost Overruns and the Road to Chapter 11
The troubled contracts did not improve inside the combined entity. In 2019 alone, two legacy CB&I projects — the Cameron LNG and Freeport LNG export terminals — ran $318m over contract value. Total cost overruns across the mcdermott cb&i portfolio reached $689m that year.
The leverage impact was severe. McDermott’s debt-to-EBITDA ratio stood at 1.3x in 2017. By 2018 it had reached 17.6x, and continued climbing through 2019. Combined revenues for the merged entity reached $8.4bn in 2019, but the business had less than two quarters of cash runway by year-end. A $1.7bn Superpriority Senior Secured Credit Facility, arranged in October 2019, bought time rather than resolved the problem.
On 21 January 2020, McDermott filed for Chapter 11 protection in the Southern District of Texas. The company secured $2.8bn in debtor-in-possession financing. Court records show that Lummus Technology — the process technology business acquired as part of CB&I — was sold for $2.7bn to a Chatterjee Group and Rhône Capital consortium, with proceeds used to repay DIP obligations. Secured lenders equitised over $3bn in debt in exchange for 94% of post-reorganisation equity. McDermott exited Chapter 11 on 30 June 2020, in under six months via a prepackaged process. CB&I remained inside the restructured entity.
McDermott’s Second Restructuring and the CB&I Sale
A second cross-border restructuring followed in 2023–24, involving UK, Dutch, and US courts. A $1.3bn ICC arbitration award related to the Reficar project was resolved through this process, alongside the extinguishment of major remaining debt obligations. Around 4,000 employees remained across North America, the Middle East, and Asia post-restructuring.
In 2024, a consortium led by Mason Capital Management LLC acquired CB&I from McDermott International for approximately $475m. [VERIFY: confirm whether $475m represents the full CB&I business or specifically the Tank division assets — search “CB&I Mason Capital acquisition 2024 $475 million” before publishing.] Consortium members included IES Holdings Inc., Nut Tree Capital Management LP, 683 Capital Management LLC, and First Pacific Advisors. CB&I emerged from the transaction with no funded debt.
CB&I as a Standalone — A Narrower, Focused Business
CB&I relocated its headquarters to The Woodlands, Texas, and appointed Mark Butts as CEO. The strategic pivot was deliberate: away from the large-scale, high-risk lump-sum EPC contracts that had triggered the McDermott collapse, and toward storage tanks, field-erected structures, and energy infrastructure — work the company had executed reliably for decades before the merger changed its risk profile.
That positioning places CB&I in direct competition with a focused set of North American fabricators and constructors, rather than the global EPCI market. The top tank and terminal EPC contractors in North America now include a CB&I operating from a structurally cleaner position than at any point since the 2018 merger.
Petrofac Asset Solutions — CB&I’s First Major Acquisition
On 24 December 2025, CB&I announced an agreement to acquire Petrofac Asset Solutions from Petrofac, which had entered administration in October 2025. The acquisition proceeded via a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA): creditor participation reached 99%, with 86% by value approving the deal on 30 January 2026. An HMRC challenge to the CVA was lodged on 2 March 2026 and rejected by the Edinburgh court on 12 March 2026, allowing the transaction to complete.
Approximately 3,000 Petrofac employees transferred to CB&I. The acquired business — covering operations and maintenance, brownfield engineering, and asset integrity services — will operate as CB&I Asset Solutions, headquartered in Aberdeen. Petrofac Emirates, the UAE engineering and construction division, was not part of the transaction and remains unaffected.
For the mcdermott cb&i separation story, the Petrofac deal is the clearest statement yet of CB&I’s independent strategy: acquire service-heavy, lower-risk businesses that complement storage tank construction without reintroducing the mega-project exposure that destroyed the McDermott entity. Further detail on CB&I’s current operations and asset base is available on the CB&I company profile.
Why did McDermott acquire CB&I?
McDermott acquired CB&I in 2018 to create a vertically integrated onshore-offshore EPCI contractor covering the full oil and gas lifecycle. CB&I’s scale — $6.7bn in 2017 revenues against McDermott’s $3.0bn — made the combined entity a major global player on paper. However, CB&I was already carrying severely deteriorating legacy contracts, with gross margins near zero at the time of acquisition.
When did McDermott file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy?
McDermott filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on 21 January 2020 in the Southern District of Texas. The filing followed $689m in cost overruns across the combined McDermott CB&I portfolio in 2019 and a leverage ratio that had exceeded 20x. The company exited Chapter 11 on 30 June 2020 via a prepackaged process.
When did CB&I separate from McDermott?
CB&I separated from McDermott in 2024, when a consortium led by Mason Capital Management LLC acquired the business for approximately $475m. The separation followed McDermott’s 2020 Chapter 11 exit and a second cross-border restructuring in 2023–24. CB&I emerged from the buyout with no funded debt.
Who owns CB&I now?
CB&I is owned by a consortium of financial investors led by Mason Capital Management LLC. Other consortium members include IES Holdings Inc., Nut Tree Capital Management LP, 683 Capital Management LLC, and First Pacific Advisors. The company is headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, and is led by CEO Mark Butts.
What is CB&I doing after separating from McDermott?
Since separating from McDermott, CB&I has refocused on storage tanks, field-erected structures, and energy infrastructure — deliberately moving away from the large-scale lump-sum EPC contracts that contributed to the McDermott collapse. In late 2025 and early 2026, CB&I completed its first major acquisition as an independent business: Petrofac Asset Solutions, which brings approximately 3,000 employees and will operate as CB&I Asset Solutions from Aberdeen.