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Microcap & Penny Stocks : ABTX - Agribiotech -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: c-man who wrote (5825)	11/5/1998 4:58:00 PM
From: W Shakespeare	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8359

AgriBioTech Warns 1st-Qtr Profit to Lag Expectations New York, Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- AgriBioTech Inc., a Las Vegas-based seed company, warned analysts fiscal first-quarter earnings will be below expectations because of high debt costs and contracts that required it to sell seeds below cost. Chief financial officer Randy Ingram said the quarter that ended Sept. 30 will be profitable, but below the 4 cents a share expected by analysts. The company also warned it expects to report a net loss for fiscal 1999, ending June 30, after a restructuring charge of $5 million to $15 million. ''We were actually selling product below its cost, not a very good business thing to do,'' Ingram said, adding that the company has since raised its prices. AgriBioTech issued the warnings at an analysts' meeting at the offices of Deutsche Bank Securities in New York to which the media was not admitted. Ingram's comments were heard on a tape recording of the meeting made by an attendee. The company has made 33 acquisitions in less than four years and must refinance $30 million of bridge loans, principally used to fund acquisitions since July, by year's end. Ingram said today the company's capital structure ''is not optimal.'' ''The debt service to finance the acquired companies is expensive relative to the current profitability of those companies,'' said James Wilbur, an analyst at Salomon Smith Barney who attended the meeting. Company executives weren't immediately available for comment. The company's shares fell 7/8, or 6 percent, to 13 5/16. Earlier they dropped as low as 12. For Sale Last month, AgriBioTech hired Merrill Lynch & Co. to explore ways of maximizing shareholder value. Last week, Johnny Thomas, the chief executive, predicted the company will be acquired within the next several months for as much as $2.7 billion. That's more than four times today's market value of $529 million. Thomas, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Oct. 27, said he expected a large chemical company to pay between $30 and $70 a share for AgriBioTech. Today, the company said it's seeking a minority investor. ''Thomas said his objective in hiring Merrill Lynch was to find someone to buy 20 percent of the company; I was surprised by the statement,'' said Salomon Smith Barney's Wilbur. ''I believed the option of selling the company was at least as likely as selling an equity position.'' AgriBioTech has lost money for all but three quarters since it went public in September 1993. Its combined losses in the period total $12 million. AgriBioTech's cash flow from operations in the year ended June 30 was a negative $11.3 million compared with a negative $2.5 million in the prior year. Cash Flow Thomas on Oct. 29, the day the company announced three more acquisitions for an undisclosed amount of cash, said in an interview with Bloomberg News that cash flow from operations is adequate to meet debt service requirements. ''We've always said our cash flow from operations is sufficient,'' said Thomas. That contradicted language in a registration statement filed three days earlier with the Securities and Exchange Commission. ''Our cash flow from operations has not been sufficient to meet our debt service requirements without additional equity and debt financings,'' the company had said in the registration. 16:09:15 11/05/1998 Any redistribution of Bloomberg content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Bloomberg L.P. Any reference to the material must be properly attributed to Bloomberg News. The information herein was obtained from sources which Bloomberg L.P. and its suppliers believe reliable, but they do not guarantee its accuracy. Neither the information, nor any opinion expressed, constitutes a solicitation of the purchase or sale of any securities or commodities.(C) Copyright 1998 Bloomberg L.P. BLOOMBERG, Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Financial Markets, Bloomberg Television, Bloomberg News Radio are trademarks, tradenames and service marks of Bloomberg L.P.

To: c-man who wrote (5825)	11/5/1998 5:06:00 PM
From: Square_Dealings	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8359

I am new long to ABTX. Have to say I panicked when I heard about the earnings warning and sold my shares flat. Then after I saw how the stock found support pretty quickly I decided to get back in. Also I was surprised that there was mostly call buying (options) today and that some of the ones I checked were even trading higher than yesterday! Put volume was low compared to the calls that I checked. Anyway I decided to hang in this time and see what happens. The companies future value will surely increase imo. This is the first stock I've seen in a long time that pre-announced a short fall in earnings and was only off -6% at the close! Good luck. M.