3rd-Quarter Profit Leaps 80% for American Ecology

American Ecology Corp., an Agoura Hills-based operator of hazardous-waste sites, said its third-quarter profit jumped 80% from a year earlier on a 4% increase in revenue.

In the quarter ended Sept. 30, the company’s net income rose to $897,000 from $498,000, and its revenue climbed to $12.6 million from $12.1 million. American Ecology said its latest profit would have been higher except for a one-time $550,000 charge against earnings stemming from a change in its accounting for certain securities.

For the first nine months of 1991, American Ecology’s profit surged 74%, to $3.33 million from $1.91 million a year earlier, and its nine-month revenue rose 8%, to $37.1 million from $34.3 million.

Separately, American Ecology Chairman William E. Prachar said he’s negotiating with the company’s biggest stockholder, Harry J. Phillips Jr., on a transition plan for Phillips to take over Prachar’s job and run the company. Earlier this year, Phillips, a Houston investor, bought an effective 52% stake in American Ecology for $16.6 million. “It’s always been his intent to ultimately take over the management of American Ecology,” Prachar said of Phillips.

Prachar said a transition agreement is expected by year’s end, and that both men would probably run the company as a team for an unspecified period. Prachar said he would remain an American Ecology director after Phillips takes over.