Apria’s Chief Considering Purchase of the O.C. Company
George L. Argyros, chairman and the largest individual shareholder of Apria Healthcare Inc., disclosed Monday that he may lead an effort to buy the troubled home health care company and take it private.
Argyros, who controls a 5.4% stake in the Costa Mesa company, has told some directors of his intentions and plans to explain his strategy today at the regular board meeting, sources said.
The Orange County developer may join other investors to seek control of Apria, according to documents filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such a move might be led by Westar Capital, an Orange County investment firm in which Argyros holds the largest interest, sources said.
Argyros became part of a three-director team formed early this month to assess the company’s future after a deal to raise $174 million in new financing through Joseph Littlejohn & Levy, of New York, fell through.
Argyros has confided to other directors that he’s disappointed with the alternatives available to the company, a source said.
Sheree Aronson, an Apria spokeswoman, said she expects the company’s board would consider any offer from Argyros’ group along with other alternatives. She noted that a report from the three-man team exploring options is on the board’s agenda for today.
Argyros wouldn’t comment.
In the securities filing, he said he may seek to add directors allied with him to the board, buy more stock or propose a business combination including an acquisition of all outstanding stock.
But he has said Westar wouldn’t make a proposal unless the company and its financial advisors considered such a move to be in the best interests of shareholders, the source said.
Apria’s stock closed Monday at $8.63 on the New York Stock Exchange, up 19 cents. A total of 204,000 shares changed hands, fewer than half the average daily volume for the last three months. Argyros acquired most of his Apria shares in June 1995, when the company was created from the merger of two former Orange County-based rivals, Abbey Healthcare Group Inc. and Homedco Group Inc. He had been an investor in Homedco.
The combined company faltered when it failed to integrate the business systems of the two firms. The company was plagued by mounting uncollected bills and accounting problems.
Last year, the company passed up at least two bids by other companies, including one by an investor group led by a former Apria executive, Timothy Aitken, and another from Coram Healthcare Corp.
Argyros became chairman in January after Jeremy M. Jones resigned as chairman and chief executive and two other executives departed in a shake-up.
