News from EAR. The news is very positive in terms of growth. The stock buy back is on track. They are shutting down unprofitable operations in the Northeast. They are now a significant player in Southern California. They are continuing to grow the company, while keeping an eye on the bottom line. I like these decisive actions by the company.
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Wednesday January 6, 7:01 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
HEARx Announces The Opening Of
Fifteen HEARx West Centers In
California
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 6, 1999--HEARx Ltd. (AMEX:EAR -
news), Paul A. Brown, M.D., Chairman of the Board, announced today that HEARx Ltd. has
completed the construction of the first fifteen HEARx West LLC centers in California for Kaiser
Permanente's Southern California Medical Group. HEARx West LLC opened all the centers today
for patient care. HEARx West LLC is a 50/50 joint venture between HEARx Ltd. and The
Permanente Federation. In addition to the initial network of fifteen centers, it is anticipated that up to
fifteen more centers may be opened during the balance of calendar year 1999. Each center has been
designed to service between $2 million and $3 million in annual revenues. Based on patient
demography, the annual expenditure for hearing care in Southern California is approximately
$170M.
Dr. Brown also announced that revenue in Southeastern Florida increased approximately 31% in
1998 compared with 1997 and increased approximately 44% in Southwestern Florida for the same
period. These combined figures indicate HEARx Ltd.'s strength of growth patterns in the Florida
market as a whole, and includes increasing numbers of patients in managed care and retail
''self-pay'' demographics. For the company as a whole, the percentage of retail ''self-pay'' patients
increased to 33.1% in 1998 from 27.8% in 1997. Unfortunately, revenues in the Northeast remained
flat in 1998, primarily as a result of the difficulties experienced by several managed care companies
that have contracted with HEARx. In order to reduce losses in this region, HEARx has decided to
close selected stores in this marketplace that have been most severely impacted.
Dr. Brown noted that the Company has completed the purchase of approximately one million shares,
or one percent of the Company's outstanding common stock, as part of the previously announced
company stock repurchase program covering up to 20 Million shares over the next twelve to
eighteen months. The Company intends that the repurchases will be open market purchases and will
be made depending on the then prevailing price of the common stock. Funding for such purchases
have and will come from the Company's available cash, profits from operations and, in the future if
available on favorable terms, a line of credit to be established for this purpose.
HEARx, with the largest network of audio-vestibular rehabilitative centers in the $2 billion field of
hearing services, operates 90 company-owned and joint ventured ceters. HEARx Ltd. and HEARx
West LLC provide hearing care to patients whose health insurance and managed care organizations
have contracted with ''HEARx'' and to an increasing extent, to retail ''self-pay'' patients who are
unaffiliated with those organizations.
Certain of the statements made in this press release are forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve certain risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking
statements. Uncertainties, such as the future success of the joint venture efforts, prevailing price of
the common stock and the company's available cash or available line of credit, could impact the
above statements.
Contact:
Paul A. Brown. M.D.
Chairman of the Board
HEARx Ltd.
561/478-8770 ext. 123
or
Edward Silverman
Silverman Heller Associates
212/682-9222 |
