FONAR Reports Fiscal 2008 Year-End Financial
Results
MELVILLE,
NEW YORK, October 6, 2008 - FONAR Corporation (NASDAQ-FONR),
The Inventor of MR Scanning™, today announced its
financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of fiscal
2008 which ended June 30, 2008.
The fiscal 2008 net loss decreased 47.1% to $13.5
million as compared to a net loss for fiscal Year 2007 of $25.5
million. The net loss per share (basic and diluted) for fiscal
2008 was ($2.76), as compared to a net loss per share (basic
and diluted) of ($5.29) during fiscal 2007.
Revenues increased by 7.1% to $35.6 million for
fiscal 2008 as compared to $33.2 million for fiscal 2007. Service
and repair fees revenue showed the largest change with an improvement
of 10.2% in fiscal 2008 to $11.0 million from $10.0 million
in fiscal 2007. The increase was due to the initiation of service
contract agreements from recent installations of FONAR UPRIGHT® Multi-Position™ MRI
units.
In fiscal 2008 the Company reduced Research and
Development (R&D) and Selling, General and Administrative
expenses (SG&A) by an overall 15.4%. R&D decreased 12.0%
from $5.7 million in fiscal 2007 to $5.0 million in fiscal 2008,
while SG&A declined 16.1% from $24.3 million in fiscal 2007
to $20.4 million in fiscal 2008.
Total costs related to revenues also decreased
by 6.6% from $26.7 million in fiscal 2007 to $24.8 million in
fiscal 2008.
At June 30, 2008, total assets were $35.2 million,
total current assets were $22.0 million, total cash and marketable
securities were $2.4 million, total current liabilities were
$38.0 million, and total long-term liabilities were $1.4 million.
FONAR has scheduled an annual meeting on November
17, 2008 for the current and previous year. On July 8, 2008,
the Company received a letter from The NASDAQ Stock Market,
LLC, indicating it was not in compliance with Marketplace Rules
4350(e) and 4350(g) due to the fact that it had not solicited
proxies and held its annual meeting required to be held during
the fiscal year ended June 30, 2008. As a result, the notice
indicated that the Company's securities would be subject to
delisting from The NASDAQ Stock Market unless the Company requested
a hearing before a NASDAQ Listing Qualifications Panel. On July
15, 2008, the Company requested a hearing with the NASDAQ Listing
Qualifications Panel which was subsequently held on August 28,
2008 with no decision rendered. In the interim, the Company
continues to trade on The NASDAQ Stock Market.
Since the introduction of the FONAR UPRIGHT® Multi-Position™ MRI
in 2001 and as of June 30, 2008, the Company had sold 162 UPRIGHT® Multi-Position™ MRIs
and installed 128. As of June 30, 2008, the backlog is at $36.5
million.
During fiscal 2008, FONAR opened up two new international
markets with its first sales of the FONAR UPRIGHT® Multi-Position™ MRI
to the nations of Canada and Australia.
A landmark independent study by the UCLA School
of Medicine was reported during the past year. In the Proceedings
of the 22nd Annual Meeting of the North American Spine Society
(NASS) [The Spine Journal 7 (2007) 1S-163S, October 23-27, 2007,
Austin, Texas], the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
School of Medicine presented four scientific papers comparing
the visualization of spine pathology by Dynamic™ MRI to
images obtained by Static MRI. Studies were performed utilizing
the FONAR UPRIGHT® Multi-Position™ MRI scanner in
conjunction with the image analysis software developed by True
MRI for the FONAR UPRIGHT® MRI. The software provides comprehensive “quantitative
measurements” of spinal structures in both the Dynamic™ and
static positions.
The key findings of the UCLA study were: The “Miss
Rate” of spinal dislocations (spondylolistheses) by static
only MRI without flexion and extension imaging at the critical
L4-5 segment was 35.1%; The “Miss Rate” by static
only MRI at the L3-4 segment was even higher at 38.7%; The overall
static MRI “Miss Rate” in the absence of flexion
and extension was 18.1%.
In May 2008, at the Annual Meeting of the American
College of Spine Surgeons (ACSS) held in California, attendees
heard Jeffrey Wang, M.D., chief, orthopaedic spine service,
UCLA Comprehensive Spine Center, the lead researcher from the
UCLA School of Medicine studies, speak about the research.
In the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, December
2007, Volume 7 a peer-reviewed paper was published that demonstrated
the value of UPRIGHT® imaging in evaluating the extent of
brain hypermobility in Chiari malformation patients. The study
was performed by physicians from The Chiari Institute, North
Shore-Long Island Jewish Health Systems.
Commenting on the 2008 fiscal year results, Raymond
Damadian, president and chairman of FONAR said, "During
the first six months of fiscal 2008 we had an ample amount of
sales activity for our FONAR UPRIGHT® Multi-Position™ MRI.
However, except for international activity, it diminished somewhat
during the second half of the fiscal year. It appears that this
was the case throughout the MRI industry in the United States
in general and appeared to be the consequence of the shortage
of available credit from the current nationwide credit insufficiency.
We believe this will result in a pent-up demand for the FONAR
UPRIGHT® Multi-Position™ MRI.”
Dr. Damadian continued, “In recent months
we have stepped up a program to cut costs and expect this to
have its impact felt during the first fiscal quarter of 2009.
Most importantly, besides marketing UPRIGHT® Multi-Position™ MRI
scanners to system purchasers, we have enhanced our marketing
activities to consumers burdened by back-pain, informing them
of the importance of obtaining UPRIGHT® Multi-Position™ MRI
analysis of their backs before any surgical intervention is
contemplated.”
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF OPERATIONS |
| |
For the Years ended |
| |
June 30, 2008 |
June 30, 2007 |
| Revenues |
$ 35,568,833 |
$ 33,211,932 |
| Net Income (Loss) |
$(13,508,367) |
$(25,538,867) |
| Basic & Diluted Earnings |
|
|
| (Loss) per Share |
$(2.76) |
$(5.29) |