Health Services Corp. to Sell 30% Interest to Swiss Group

American Health Services Corp., a Newport Beach-based operator of medical diagnostic centers, said Tuesday that it has agreed to sell a 30% interest in its business to a Swiss conglomerate for $7 million.

American Health Services has grown rapidly in the burgeoning medical diagnostic industry during its seven-year history. But Clarke Underwood, the company’s chief financial officer, said further growth was contingent on tapping additional working capital. With $7 million from OmniCorp Holdings Inc., he said, the company plans to add another 20 centers in 1990, making a total of 50 nationwide.

Underwood said all American Health Services centers are established at hospitals in joint ventures with the institutions and their staff physicians. The company is one of the largest operators of magnetic resonance-imaging machines, which is the fastest-growing technology in the diagnostic field.

American Health Services did not earn any profit until the first six months of this year, when it earned $524,000 on revenues of $11.9 million.

Although the financing arrangement with OmniCorp would reduce the proportion of ownership that present shareholders have in the company, Underwood predicted that it will increase their equity by enabling expansion that in turn will boost per-share earnings.

OmniCorp Holdings is the New York subsidiary of the merchant banking and investment arm of a Swiss industrial and financial services group headed by Swiss investor Werner K. Rey.

Consummation of the financing transaction is subject to some conditions, including completion of a definitive agreement and the consent of American Health Services’ principal lender, Underwood said.

Underwood said OmniCorp’s investment U.S. investment strategy is to take “significant minority positions with up-and-coming companies.”