Titan’s Loss Widens on SureBeam Spinoff Costs

Titan Corp. on Monday reported a wider second-quarter net loss as the defense contractor incurred costs to spin off its money-losing SureBeam Corp. food treatment unit.

The loss widened to $11.8 million, or 16 cents a share, from $7.8 million, or 16 cents, a year earlier, Titan said. Sales rose 55% to $399.9 million.

Titan last week spun off SureBeam, which irradiates food to kill harmful bacteria, to focus on selling communications networks to the military. The San Diego firm had a loss from discontinued operations of $11.1 million in the quarter related to SureBeam.

Excluding early retirement of debt, amortization, deferred compensation, the sale of a business and other costs, Titan said it would have had a profit of $7.8 million, or 9 cents a share. On that basis, the company matched the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call. Titan shares rose 24 cents to $11.23 on the New York Stock Exchange.