IMATRON is Betting on Heartscan......
Here is a recent news article about IMAT....
Jim
.................
Imatron Completes $16 Million Equity Private Placement For Its
HeartScan Subsidiary
Funding Will Accelerate Expansion Of HeartScan's Coronary Artery
Disease Risk Assessment Centers Worldwide;
HeartScan To Become Imatron's Largest Single Customer
SO. SAN FRANCISCO, June 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Imatron Inc. (Nasdaq: IMAT) today announced that it
has completed a $16 million private placement for its HeartScan Imaging, Inc. subsidiary. HeartScan
provides comprehensive coronary artery disease risk assessment services in a developing worldwide
network of centers using Imatron's proprietary Ultrafast CT(R) technology.
S. Lewis Meyer, President and CEO of Imatron said, "This financing for HeartScan represents a major
milestone for Imatron. This funding will allow us to establish HeartScan as a separate business which
we expect will provide Imatron with a very strong continuing source of orders for our Ultrafast CT(R)
scanners as well as continued significant participation in HeartScan's service revenue stream. With
this $16 million equity capital infusion, HeartScan will implement its plan for accelerating the opening
of new Centers. HeartScan's network of outpatient Centers will be opened primarily in affiliation with
leading medical institutions and "opinion leader" cardiologists. Capitalizing HeartScan as a stand
alone entity, and reporting its financial results separately, will permit the investment community to
evaluate the development and prospects of each company more effectively and will enable each
company to pursue its respective objectives more directly; Imatron - developing, manufacturing and
marketing Ultrafast CT(R) scanners and HeartScan - delivering comprehensive coronary artery disease
risk assessment testing," Meyer said.
Dale Grant, President and Chief Operating Officer of HeartScan commented that, "This equity
investment by a group of highly sophisticated investors is a very strong vote of confidence in the
HeartScan business strategy. Given the overwhelming body of clinical evidence supporting the use of
Imatron's Ultrafast CT(R) in diagnosing early stage coronary artery disease, we see demand for the
non-invasive coronary artery scan using the Imatron EBT scanner growing rapidly through the year
2000 and beyond."
Grant's remarks follow the recent press release by the American Heart Association on May 31, 1996
which referenced a recent study in the AHA's journal, Circulation, that found that Imatron's Ultrafast
CT(R) scanner ... " accurately predicts heart attacks in seemingly healthy people."
Investors in the HeartScan Imaging private placement include several leading institutional investors: SC
Fundamental Value Fund, L.P., and Cramer Rosenthal McGlynn, Inc., both of New York City; and
Gruber & McBaine of San Francisco. The securities were placed by Ambient Capital Group, Inc. and
Libra Investments, Inc. of Los Angeles and The Shemano Group, Inc. of San Francisco.
All of HeartScan's Coronary Artery Disease Risk Assessment Centers feature Imatron's patented,
proprietary electron-beam computed tomography technology to scan the beating heart at a speed fast
enough to "freeze" the heart's motion ... far faster than any conventional (mechanical) CT scanning
technology. The Ultrafast CT(R) scan data can be electronically converted by a computer into a
three-dimensional image of the heart clearly showing the coronary arteries, coronary bypass grafts and
significant blockages of the principal coronary arteries. HeartScan currently operates three Centers in
Seattle (affiliated with Northwest Hospital), San Francisco and Houston (affiliated with the Baylor
College of Medicine), and has announced plans to open Centers in Pittsburgh (affiliated with the
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) and Washington D.C. (affiliated with George Washington
University Medical Center) this summer with at least six additional centers expected to be in operation
over the next 12 months.
Under the terms of the transaction, a group of institutional and accredited individuals invested a total of
$16 million in exchange for 100,000 shares of HeartScan Imaging Series A Preferred Stock
representing a 40 percent fully diluted ownership interest in HeartScan. The Preferred Shares are
exchangeable into 3.2 million shares, in aggregate, of Imatron common stock for up to 24 months after
the closing of the transaction. The Preferred Shares require mandatory conversion into HeartScan
common stock in conjunction with an anticipated initial public offering of HeartScan within 24 months
of the closing, or are exchangeable into Imatron common shares at a discount to the future market
price in the event that HeartScan has not become a separate public company within the 24
month-period. Imatron expects to file an S-3 registration statement covering the 3.2 million shares of
Imatron stock into which the HeartScan shares are initially convertible.
Imatron Ultrafast CT(R) scanners are in use in 35 sites nationwide, 65 worldwide. Imatron Inc. is
primarily engaged in designing, manufacturing and marketing high performance computed tomography
(CT) scanners based on the Company's proprietary scanning electron beam technology; Ultrafast
CT(R) is a registered trademark of Imatron. Imatron's Ultrafast CT(R) scanner is now in use at major
medical centers around the world, including The Mayo Clinic, University of Iowa, National Institutes of
Health, UCLA, University of Illinois, The Royal Brompton Hospital in London, Tokyo University
Hospital, Beijing Hospital, and other major medical centers around the world. Imatron's Ultrafast CT(R)
is distributed in the United States, Canada, Europe and India by Siemens Medical Systems. Imatron's
HeartScan Imaging Inc. subsidiary provides Coronary Artery Disease Risk Assessment diagnostic
services in a worldwide network of Company-owned clinics.
/CONTACT: S. Lewis Meyer, President/CEO, or Gary Brooks, VP Finance/CFO, 415-583-9964, both
of Imatron; or Media/Analysts: John Shaw, Sitrick And Company, 310-788-2850/
|
