Synovis' fiscal 3Q profit falls on charges

Synovis Life Technologies' 3rd-quarter profit falls on auction-rate securities, buyout costs

• On 10:41 am EDT, Wednesday September 2, 2009

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Medical device maker Synovis Life Technologies Inc. said Wednesday it fell to a fiscal 2009 third-quarter loss on a series of buyout and auction-rate securities charges.

The company lost $4.9 million, or 42 cents per share, compared with profit of $1.8 million, or 14 cents per share, during the same period a year prior. Revenue rose 12 percent to $15 million from $13.4 million.

Excluding charges for auction-rate securities and the buyout of Pegasus Biologics, the company said it earned 19 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected profit of 17 cents per share.

The auction-rate securities market involved investors buying and selling instruments that resembled corporate debt. They were sold as being as safe as cash, but the market for them fell apart in early 2008.

During the quarter ended July 31, Peri-Strip sales rose 1 percent to $4.8 million. The product is used to control bleeding and leakage in anti-obesity surgery. Meanwhile, tissue patch product sales rose 82 percent to $2.3 million. Those products include Veritas, a collagen material used to improve healing in soft tissue.

Shares of Synovis fell $1.21, or 8 percent, to $13.90 in morning trading. The stock has traded between $11.11 and $22.54 over the past 52 weeks.

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