AVP will no longer be public company

With its stock trading over the counter at 8 cents a share, the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals announced Friday it was pulling the plug on being a publicly traded company.

The AVP, which is anchored by its AVP Crocs Beach Volleyball Tour, is not going out of business; on the contrary, the company is faring reasonably well given the gloomy economic climate.

But by announcing its intent to deregister its common stock with the Securities and Exchange Commission, citing accounting, legal and administrative expenses, the AVP is giving up on being a public company.

Leonard Armato, the company’s chief executive, explained that the clerical obligations of being a public company with virtually no trading volume were also a drain on staff.

“I was spending a quarter of my time on just the business of being a public company,” Armato said. “Now I can focus my time on building our assets.”

The AVP, which last year launched the AVP Hot Winter Nights Indoor Tour, reported a net loss of $3.3 million for the first nine months of 2008, compared to a loss of $2 million during the same period in 2007, while revenue fell 4% to $22.9 million for the first nine months of this year.

The AVP has fewer than 300 holders of more than 21,490,000 outstanding shares of common stock. On the bright side, Armato said most major sponsorships are in place for 2009, a season in which the AVP will stage more than 30 events throughout the United States.

“We’re looking to take advantage of the downturn,” he said. “In a difficult economic time, we feel we’re a good value proposition that gives people a whole day of the ultimate beach experience for a small amount of money.”

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pete.thomas@latimes.com