San Clemente Biomedical Firm to Offer Stocks

Micro Therapeutics Inc. aims to join the expected rush of tiny companies making initial public offerings early in the new year.

The San Clemente maker and developer of medical catheters filed plans to raise nearly $22 million in a sale next month of 2 million shares priced at about $12 a share. The company hopes to take advantage of the seasonal uptick in institutional investors’ interest in new issues that Wall Street experts say generally occurs in late January and early February.

“Everyone has the same sentiment,” said Tom Berryman, the company’s chief financial officer. “Early 1997 is when fund managers will be looking for new opportunities.”

Micro Therapeutics considered such an offering earlier this year, but decided not to venture into the market as the spring boom in new biomedical stocks hit a mid-summer bust.

While the flood of biomedical offerings early this year has dried up completely, analysts say more than 200 companies across a variety of industries plan initial offerings in the first quarter of next year.

Micro Therapeutics develops and makes catheters and other devices used to treat vascular disease, including strokes, and other ailments.

The company reported modest sales of slightly less than $1 million for the nine months ended in September. Micro Therapeutics, founded three years ago, has posted total losses of $8 million.

Its filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission notes that investing in the company “involves a high degree of risk.”