Bergen Brunswig Commtron Unit Closes at $11.50

Bergen Brunswig Corp. took its Commtron consumer electronics subsidiary public Tuesday with an offering of 2 million shares at $12 per share and immediately made the American Exchange’s most active list as 593,600 shares were traded.

The issue closed at $11.50 a share, down 50 cents for the day.

The offering was underwritten by a syndicate managed by Drexel Burnham Lambert & Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc.

And despite the less-than exciting results of Tuesday’s trading, Bergen Brunswig plans to offer $43 million of subordinated debentures today, which will be exchangeable for Commtron shares at the rate of $14.88 per share, or 67.2 shares per $1,000 debenture. Drexel Burnham Lambert will manage the offering, which was delayed Tuesday by a misfiled form at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

George E. Reinhardt Jr., Bergen Brunswig’s vice president and chief financial officer, said the company should net about $63 million from the two offerings and intends to use the cash to repay bank debt that was incurred primarily to finance acquisitions such as Commtron--a national distributor of pre-recorded videocassettes and consumer electronics.

Orange-based Bergen Brunswig, a major distributor of medical supplies, pharmaceuticals and consumer electronics, owns 80% of Commtron’s 10 million shares outstanding following Tuesday’s offering. If all of the debentures are exchanged, for an additional 2.9 million shares of Commtron stock, Bergen Brunswig’s holding will drop to about 51%.