1st January 2010
The Courier Mail
Syringe maker bled dry
OCCUPATIONAL & Medical Innovations, a retractable syringe business started by a devout Queensland Christian whose relative suffered a needle-prick, has called n the corporate doctors.
Logan-based OMI’s entry into voluntary administration yesterday comes after the struggling biotech raised almost $40 million from investors since listing on the stock market in October 2000.
Administrators SV Partners David Stimpson and Terrence Rose confirmed they were “taking control of the assets and will be meeting with the directors and key personnel to determine the options”.
It is still very early days and we are in the middle of determining the company’s current circumstances and asset and liability position,” Mr Stimpson said.
OMI sells a retractable syringe and a safety scalpel. Other projects include a catheter and medical valve.
Inventor and executive Bruce Kiehne was a boilermaker and born-again Christian who, with family, cleaned up a derelict building in the 1990s for use as a church.
“My brother-in-law beat my eight year old daughter to a chip packet that was laced full of syringes and stuck himself in the hand. That’s when it started,” Mr Kiehne told ABC Radio in 2003.
Some investors were enticed by the story.
OMI stock peaked at $6.61 in December 2002. But shares dawdled in recent years, and have been suspended since September at 14.5 cents
The loss-making company made upbeat announcements that went unfulfilled.
Under a previous board, OMI missed forecasts of breaking even in 2005.
In November 2008, OMI predicted revenues would hit $4.3 million for discal 2009. The bottom line was revenues of $2.2 million, which was still a 26 per cent rise.
OMI’s auditors flagged concerns about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern in the last annual report in October.
In December a US jury in a patent dispute found OMI had “misappropriated” information from a Texan rival. OMI had long denied the allegation.
The jury concluded OMI should pay $US3.8 million ($A4.3 million), although he decision still needs ratification by a court.
OMI suffered boardroom upheaval on 2004, and later was entangled in a bizarre legal case over the dismissal of a former CEO that even drew in the mistress of a Chinese business partner.
Mr Kiehne owned almost 10 per cent of OMI stock, according to a notice filed in December after he stepped down as a director.
Mr Kiehne, who was paid $234,000 last year, was also noted in the last annual report as having lent $300,000 to OMI.
He could not be reached yesterday. Attempts to contact OMI chairman David Shirley were unsuccessful.
