Gradco Inc. said it will purchase 800,000...

Gradco Inc. said it will purchase 800,000 shares of its common stock from Japan’s C. Itoh & Co. Ltd and C. Itoh Electronics Corp. for about $7.3 million. The Japanese companies, which had earlier purchased exclusive rights to manufacture and market Gradco products in Japan, acquired the shares in a 1987 deal in which Gradco bought back those marketing and manufacturing rights for $11.5 million in cash and stock. Gradco Chairman Keith Stewart said the company will pay 1,292 Japanese yen, or about $9.60, for each of its shares held by C. Itoh. Gradco stock recently has been trading near $11. C. Itoh will continue to own about 100,000 Gradco shares. As a result of the stock repurchase, the amount of Gradco common stock outstanding will be reduced to about 6.3 million shares.