Atrion completes sale of natural gas pipeline and marketing subsidiaries.ARAB Arab (ā`răb), in the Bible, hill town of S ancient Palestine, near Hebron. Arab Any member of the Arabic-speaking peoples native to the Middle East and North Africa. , Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 30, 1997--Atrion Corporation (Nasdaq NMS See NetWare Management System. :ATRI) announced today that it has completed the sale of its natural gas pipeline and marketing subsidiaries to Midcoast Energy Resources, Inc. (AMEX AMEX See: American Stock Exchange :MRS MRS - Modifiable Representation System. An integration of logic programming into Lisp. ["A Modifiable Representation System", M. Genesereth et al, HPP 80-22, CS Dept Stanford U 1980]. ) for approximately $39.4 million in cash. The sale, which was approved by Atrion's stockholders at the Company's annual meeting held yesterday, is part of Atrion's efforts to redeploy re·de·ploy tr.v. re·de·ployed, re·de·ploy·ing, re·de·ploys 1. To move (military forces) from one combat zone to another. 2. its assets in higher growth areas like the medical products industry. Jerry A. Howard, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, said, "We believe the proceeds from the sale of our natural gas businesses will provide a strong foundation from which to launch our plans to acquire other companies involved in the medical products industry. Our intent is to focus on operations that offer significant synergies with our existing medical-products operations." Howard noted that the Company will record a gain of about $17 million in the second quarter of 1997 from the sale of its natural gas pipeline and marketing subsidiaries. As a result of this gain, Atrion estimates that its book value per share has increased to approximately $16 per share from the first quarter 1997 level of about $11 per share. In other actions at Atrion's annual meeting held yesterday, stockholders elected three directors to serve three-year terms ending with the annual meeting in the year 2000. Elected were: Richard O. Jacobson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Jacobson Warehouse Company, Inc.; Jerome J. McGrath, with the law firm of Gallagher, Boland, Meiberger & Brosnan; and Hugh J. Morgan, Jr., Chairman of the Board of National Bank of Commerce of Birmingham. Stockholders also approved the Company's 1997 Stock Incentive Plan and ratified the appointment of Arthur Andersen For the U.S. Supreme Court case commonly known as Arthur Andersen, see . Arthur Andersen LLP, based in Chicago, was once one of the "Big Five" accounting firms (the other four are PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young and KPMG), performing LLP LLP - Lower Layer Protocol as independent accountants for the year ending Dec. 31, 1997. Atrion Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, sells, and distributes medical products and components for a worldwide health care market. CONTACT: Atrion Corporation, Arab Jeffery Strickland, 205/586-1580 |
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