Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP (“Coughlin Stoia”) (http://www.csgrr.com/cases/energysolutions/) today announced that a class action has been commenced on behalf of an institutional investor in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of purchasers of the common stock of EnergySolutions, Inc. (“EnergySolutions” or the “Company”) (NYSE:ES) in or traceable to the Company’s initial public offering on or about November 14, 2007 (the “IPO”) and the Company’s offering of securities on or about July 24, 2008 (the “July 2008 Offering”) (collectively, the “Offerings”), as well as purchasers of the Company’s common stock between November 14, 2007 and October 14, 2008, inclusive (the “Class Period”), under Sections 11, 12(a)(2) and 15 of the Securities Act of 1933 (“Securities Act”) and Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”).
If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than 60 days from today. If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, please contact plaintiff’s counsel, Samuel H. Rudman or David A. Rosenfeld of Coughlin Stoia at 800/449-4900 or 619/231-1058, or via e-mail at djr@csgrr.com. If you are a member of this Class, you can view a copy of the complaint as filed or join this class action online at http://www.csgrr.com/cases/energysolutions/. Any member of the putative class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member.
The complaint charges EnergySolutions, certain directors and officers of EnergySolutions, ENV Holdings, LLC (“ENV Holdings”) and the main underwriters for the Offerings, with violations of the Securities Act and the Exchange Act. EnergySolutions is a provider of specialized, technology-based nuclear services to government and commercial customers.
More than 30 million EnergySolutions shares were sold to investors in the IPO at $23 per share raising approximately $765.90 million and 40.25 million shares were sold to investors in the July 2008 Offering at $19 per share raising approximately $764.75 million. Prior to the IPO, ENV Holdings held 100% of the shares of EnergySolutions, sold millions of shares in the IPO, and sold 100% of the shares to investors in the July 2008 Offering.
The complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, and in the offering documents for the Offerings, defendants made numerous positive statements regarding the Company’s financial condition, business and prospects. The complaint further alleges that these statements were inaccurate statements of material fact when made because defendants failed to disclose the following adverse facts, among others: (i) that economic problems in the United States and internationally were adversely affecting the Company’s ability to secure projects which would adversely affect its future results; (ii) that statements in the Company’s offering documents for the Offerings about the opportunities in the nuclear industry were materially misleading because EnergySolutions was not well situated in the near term to benefit from those opportunities; (iii) that on May 29, 2007 and prior to the IPO, the Company filed a petition for rulemaking (the “Petition”) requesting that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (“NRC”) change well-established and longstanding regulations to allow funds from licensees’ decommissioning trust funds to be used for the cost of disposal of major radioactive components that have been removed from reactors before the permanent cessation of operations; (iv) that the business prospects of the Company, including the Company’s license stewardship initiative, were heavily dependent upon a favorable ruling from the NRC on the Petition; (v) that by the time of the Petition, the NRC had already addressed and rejected the issue raised by EnergySolutions in the Petition; (vi) that the Company faced significant risks that the Petition would be rejected by the NRC because the NRC has long been clear that the purpose of the decommissioning trust funds is to ensure that licensees have adequate funds on hand for decommissioning activities at the time of license expiration; and (vii) that the rule change sought by the Petition was considerably more difficult and was much riskier than represented.
On October 14, 2008, EnergySolutions issued a press release that revealed, among other things, that the Company was reducing its estimates for net income, that the financial crisis would delay EnergySolutions’ ability to accelerate the decommissioning of nuclear power plant assets, and that the NRC denied the Petition for rulemaking change. Following this announcement, the price of EnergySolutions’ stock collapsed from $10.14 per share on October 13, 2008 to close at $5.64 per share on October 14, 2008 - a one day decline of $4.50 per share or 44% - on extremely heavy volume of 9.4 million shares.
Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of all purchasers of EnergySolutions common stock during the Class Period (the “Class”). The plaintiff is represented by Coughlin Stoia, which has expertise in prosecuting investor class actions and extensive experience in actions involving financial fraud.
Coughlin Stoia, a 190-lawyer firm with offices in San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boca Raton, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Atlanta, is active in major litigations pending in federal and state courts throughout the United States and has taken a leading role in many important actions on behalf of defrauded investors, consumers, and companies, as well as victims of human rights violations. The Coughlin Stoia Web site (http://www.csgrr.com) has more information about the firm.
Contacts:
Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP
Samuel H. Rudman,
800-449-4900
David A. Rosenfeld
djr@csgrr.com