Tri-Lite’s 1st Stock Offering Fails to Brighten Up Wall Street : Trading: The Irvine lighting systems company’s shares closed at $5, down from its opening price of $6.

During its first day of public trading Wednesday, Tri-Lite Inc. did not exactly light up Wall Street.

With an opening price of $6 a share, common stock of the Irvine-based lighting systems company closed on the American Stock Exchange down nearly 17% at $5 per share in heavy trading.

Tri-Lite, a subsidiary of Helionetics Inc. in Irvine, designs and markets a variety of lighting systems and fixtures and is involved in electrical energy management. The company’s new ticker symbol is NRG.

The company raised $5 million in Wednesday’s offering, some of which will be used to retire outstanding debt of $1.5 million. Despite the price drop in the common stock, company spokesman Paul Keil called the offering a success.

“We’re very pleased with the way it’s been trading,” Keil said. “I don’t attach any significance to the price at this time. Let’s see how it does in the next couple of weeks.”

The company’s offering consisted of 1 million units, initially priced at $5 each, that included one share of stock and one warrant redeemable for half a common share sold through Dickinson & Co., a small regional brokerage based in Des Moines, Iowa.

Most of Tri-Lite’s lighting fixtures are manufactured in Korea, Taiwan, China and Hong Kong and shipped to Irvine.

The company, with 140 employees, reported a loss of nearly $1.4 million in 1991, but posted a profit of $204,643 last year. It had sales of $5.9 million in 1991, $6.3 million last year and expects $12.5 million in sales this year, according to A. Alvin Katz, Tri-Lite chairman.

“It was exciting to see the new company symbol go across the ticker, but when all is said and done, I’ve got a company to run,” Katz said.