Infrasonics Executives Optimistic

SAN DIEGO —  Infrasonics executives, overseeing their first annual shareholders’ meeting Wednesday, stopped short of predicting that the three-year-old respiratory-care manufacturer will turn its first profit this year.

But their optimism was revealed by their seeming lack of concern over the company’s dwindling $753,351 in stockholders’ equity, which will be depleted even more when a first-quarter loss of $230,000 is announced later this week.

Optimism was the byword at the shareholders’ meeting as Chairman and President James Hitchin announced a $100,000 order to supply 400 exhalation-isolation systems and bacteria filters to an unidentified “major international” ventilators manufacturer.

The order will allow Infrasonics to continue its trend of doubling revenues every quarter, according to Hitchin. Sales in the first quarter ended Sept. 30 were about $217,000, or about 90% of Infrasonics’ revenues in all of fiscal 1985.

The company will expand, said Hitchin, through both increased products and, perhaps, through an acquisition or merger.

Shareholders helped officials in that regard Wednesday by authorizing the creation of 10,000 shares of preferred stock, which could be used to acquire other businesses or to raise capital through private placements, according to the company’s proxy.

The current $1.2-billion-per-year respiratory health care market in the United States will reach $3.7 billion in 10 years, Hitchin said. That growth will be sparked, he said, by the simultaneous increase in lung cancer cases and the increase in the average age of U.S. citizens.