Tokos Medical Merger With Rival Healthdyne Approved

Shareholders of Tokos Medical Corp. and rival Healthdyne Inc. of Marietta, Ga., approved the merger of the two home health-care companies at separate meetings Wednesday.

The merger is expected to close Friday and will be followed by a round of layoffs that will hit hardest at Tokos’ Santa Ana corporate headquarters. The new company, to be called Matria Healthcare Inc., will have headquarters in Georgia and regional offices in Santa Ana.

Officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but in previous interviews Tokos’ chief financial officer, Nicholas A. Mione, said the company’s 300 or so corporate employees would be “significantly affected” by a plan to trim a total of 375 jobs from the combined payrolls. One of the jobs to go, Mione has said, will be his own.

Tokos has about 1,000 employees nationally, as does Healthdyne.

The merged company will continue the home obstetrical care business of Tokos and Healthdyne’s Maternity Management division.

The new company will have total revenue of about $165 million. Healthdyne’s chairman and chief executive, Parker H. Petit, will be chairman of the new company while Tokos Chairman and Chief Executive Robert F. Byrnes will be president and chief executive of Matria.

The merger was prompted by the continuing cost-cutting demands of the health-care industry and the fact that the two companies competed head to head in the home maternity care business. In 1995, Tokos lost $5.9 million while Healthdyne’s maternity care unit lost $1.2 million.

The merger plan calls for each of Tokos’ and Healthdyne’s common shares to be converted into one common share of Matria Healthcare. The new stock is to begin trading March 11 on the Nasdaq stock market under the symbol MATR, the companies said.

On Wednesday, Tokos shares closed unchanged at $9.625 while Healthdyne common stock dropped by 12 1/2 cents a share to close at $9.50.