MICA delisted from NASDAQ exchange

The NASDAQ stock exchange hasadded insult to injury to Medical Imaging Centers of America (MICA).The San Diego-based firm, already suffering from the high costof an expensive lease portfolio, announced last month that itsstock has been delisted from NASDAQ.

MICA's stock was once a high flyer among publicly held imagingservice providers, with a price hovering around $14 a share. Thatprice had plummeted over the past several years to 50¢ ashare shortly before the stock was delisted.

MICA's dropping stock price and declining net worth ran afoulof NASDAQ's listing requirements, which mandate that a companyhave a stock price of over $1 and net worth of at least $4 million.MICA's net worth currently stands at about negative $3 million.

MICA's problems stem from the decline in reimbursement ratesand patient referrals that have hammered the imaging center industry.MICA's fee-for-service business was hit particularly hard, andas a result the firm has been left with a portfolio of expensiveequipment acquired in the late 1980s and early 1990s that doesnot fit the emerging health-care environment, according to chairmanand CEO Antone J. Lazos.

While the delisting is a black eye for MICA, the company'saggressive cost-cutting campaign is reducing its red ink. MICAhas cut personnel from 500 to 300 and is modernizing its technologyas quickly as possible. As old equipment comes off lease it isbeing replaced with more efficient scanners at better lease rates,Lazos said.

As a result, MICA's net loss fell from $1.9 million in thefirst quarter of 1993 to $662,000 in the first quarter of thisyear (end-March). Revenues dropped, from $18 million in the firstquarter of 1993 to $14.3 million in the same period this year.MICA runs 21 imaging centers in selected regions around the country.

MICA stockholders can continue to follow the company on theOTC Bulletin Board, where it will be listed under the stock symbolMIKA. MICA hopes to return to NASDAQ as soon as the company returnsto profitability, Lazos said.