41% of Com Systems in Swiss Hands

Com Systems, a Van Nuys-based provider of long-distance communications services in California and Arizona, sold a 41.5% stake in the company to a Swiss concern for $5 million.

Inspectorate International SA of Switzerland, which made the purchase through its Dutch investment group, said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it bought the Com Systems stock as an investment and had no immediate plans to change the company’s management.

Under an agreement reached with Com Systems on April 15, the Swiss company bought 250,000 preferred shares that are convertible into 3.34 million newly issued common shares of Com Systems. Com Systems currently has about 4.7 million common shares outstanding.

Inspectorate International paid the equivalent of $1.50 for each of its Com Systems common shares. The stock is one of the thinly traded “pink sheet” stocks of the over-the-counter market.

No Comment Until Filing

Gregory Gasson, Com Systems’ chief financial officer, said Com Systems was declining comment on the stock sale until it files its full-year 1987 financial statements with the SEC. He said the filing should occur within a few days.

Although Com Systems has been rebounding recently from major losses in the early 1980s, the $5 million paid by Inspectorate International would provide Com Systems with the capital it needs to bolster its weak balance sheet. As of Sept. 30, Com Systems had a negative net worth of $4.44 million, meaning its liabilities exceeded its assets by that amount.

In the nine months ended Sept. 30, Com Systems’ profit nearly doubled from a year earlier, to $1.94 million from $1 million, and its revenue jumped 38% to $29.3 million from $21.1 million.

The company has attributed the improvement partly to its recent acquisition of other regional long-distance telephone companies. In 1984 and 1985, when Com Systems’ fiscal year ended on March 31, the company suffered losses of $5.01 million and $2.83 million, respectively.