N-Viro steps back from plan to sell preferred shares

11/20/2002

Toledo's N-Viro International Corp. has backed off a plan to sell preferred stock to raise as much as $1.25 million.

Chief Executive Terry Logan said yesterday that the plan is on the “back burner” as the company pursues other means of financing.

“We're looking at some other options,” said the head of the publicly traded firm that recycles Toledo's sewage treatment sludge and licenses the patented process to other cities.

He contended that position was not at odds with a quarterly report filed Friday with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, in which N-Viro stated that it had “agreed to go forward on a contract with the investment banking firm ”of Laux & Co., of Medina, Ohio, on a plan to sell preferred shares.

The statement, which has been included in N-Viro's quarterly SEC filings at least since May, said the company hoped to sell up to 500,000 shares at $2.50 each.

The chief executive said N-Viro would consider issuing the stock if the banking firm brought a potential purchaser willing to buy preferred shares on acceptable terms.

Mr. Logan's statement and company SEC filings indicate, however, that N-Viro is exploring other ways of raising cash, including short-term loans arranged by investment banking firms and the possible sale of a Florida subsidiary.

The firm owed $650,000 to its primary lender as of Sept. 30 under a credit agreement that is up for renewal Jan. 30. N-Viro made a profit of $106,000 on sales of $1.5 million in the third quarter. That compared with a loss of $357,000 on sales of $1.2 million a year earlier. Shares of the firm, which trades on over-the-counter markets after being delisted by Nasdaq last spring for insufficient net worth, last closed at 93 cents.