MRI growth boosts Elscint's profit

Elscint's flourishing position in MRI is doing wonders for themedical imaging vendor's top and bottom lines. Elscint realizedrevenues of $190.9 million in fiscal 1991 (end-December)--up from$161.9 million in 1990. The increase is based on an 85% growthin revenues from its MRI product line, according to the company'sannual report.

The report signals the continuation of an impressive turnaroundfor the Haifa, Israel, corporation, which teetered at the brinkof bankruptcy in the late 1980s. Net income in 1991 grew to $17.1million, an increase of 27% over 1990.

Elscint held total assets of $171.7 million at year's end,with a debt-to-equity ratio of 15.6%. Working capital more thandoubled, to total $66.6 million.

Elscint's MRI division showed strong improvement, with dollarsales of MRI systems doubling in 1991. The company realized about$25 million in sales, up from $12.4 million the previous year.Sales of CT systems jumped 29%, to $53.9 million. Service incometotaled $53.4 million, a 5.4% increase from 1990.

Elscint's recent highlights include:

• A secondary stock offering of five million shares tenderedin November. The sale generated $26.5 million. The money willbe invested mainly in research and development.

• A strategic alliance with Silicon Graphics of MountainView, CA, to develop a new workstation for Elscint's Gyrex V lineof MRI scanners.

• Expansion of Field Watch, the company's centralizedservice support and dispatching system, to Europe. The new operationwas established along with a new spare parts depot in Wiesbaden,Germany, earlier this year. Field Watch was launched in the U.S.in 1989.

• An agreement with Scanditronix to sell Elscint's imagingproduct lines in Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

• Collaboration with Financing for Science and Industry,a leasing company that handles equipment financing for Elscintsystems in the U.S.

Elscint's North American operations made a substantial contributionto corporate performance. Revenues from North America rose byone-third, for a total of $74.5 million. Company officials creditedthe increase to the expansion of its U.S. marketing effort.