Medical Staffing Company Files For Stock Sale

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By CHRIS COATES


San Fernando Valley Business Journal

The once-troubled medical staffing firm On Assignment has filed a shelf registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission in hopes of selling additional stock to generate as much as $125 million for acquisitions.


On Assignment President and CEO Peter Dameris said the Calabasas company took the step because it is steadily recovering and likely will need cash to expand.


“We’ve spent the last two years really fixing up this business,” Dameris said. “The next logical step for the company’s growth is to do some acquisitions.”


The move comes after six lackluster years for On Assignment.


The company last year reported a net loss of $96,000, or less than a penny a share, on revenues of $238 million. That was on top of a 2004 net loss of $42.4 million, or $1.68 per share on revenues of $194 million.


Those numbers were confounding to some, since On Assignment seemed like a business that would be in strong demand amid the biotech boom and as hospitals demanded more nurses.


Tobey Sommer, an analyst with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Capital Markets, said On Assignment appeared to be in a freefall.


“On Assignment fell further than the other health care staffing companies during the market correction in 2002 and ’03,” Sommer said.


That may be changing, however. Last August, the company turned a profit for the first time in eight quarters, tallying a modest income of $146,000 on revenues of $57.4 million. For the first quarter of 2006, which ended March 31, revenues increased 34 percent to $66.7 million.


With the secondary stock, On Assignment can either sell it all at once or in chunks of any size any time over a two-year period without being forced to re-register the security. That allows the stock to be sold when money is needed or simply if the market is favorable.


While plans are in the early stages, Dameris said he’s looking to diversify by adding more staffing services or perhaps creating divisions.


“We’ve got good growth. We’ve got great margins. But in the scheme of things, we’re still a pretty small public company. You either need to be larger or part of a larger business,” he said.

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