California Amplifier’s Outlook Improves With Debt Agreement

The pact California Amplifier reached with its creditors last week will help the Camarillo-based maker of components for satellite dish systems gain more military and industrial business, company Chairman Donald W. Fuller said Monday.

Fuller said he was particularly optimistic that the settlement would make it easier to receive orders from the federal government. The company’s backlog of orders now extends only through July.

The agreement in principle reached with creditors Friday calls for California Amplifier to pay about $1.9 million in unsecured debt. Unsecured creditors will receive about $750,000 in cash and will get a promissory note for the balance, which will be secured by a deed on California Amplifier’s Camarillo plant and a lien on the company’s personal property.

California Amplifier traditionally has focused on equipping consumers’ backyard satellite dish systems. Now that several television services have begun scrambling their signals, however, that business is suffering.

California Amplifier’s military and industrial products, used in radar and missile-tracking systems, have previously accounted for 25% of sales. In the next quarter, Fuller said, that business will account for more than half its revenue.

During the nine months ended Nov. 30, California Amplifier lost $1.1 million as its sales declined 29%, to $11.2 million. The company has said it will report a significant operating loss for its fiscal year ended Feb. 20.