PARIS — Satellite control systems provider Integral Systems on Jan. 13 announced it had hired a financial adviser to assess “strategic alternatives” including the possible sale of the company.
Columbia, Md.-based Integral, which is coming off what its management referred to as a rough 2010, said Stone Key Partners LLC will advise Integral management on its options and that management may or may not agree to the proposed course of action.
For its 2010 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 24, Integral reported an operating loss of about $1.5 million on revenue of $180 million. EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, was $8.2 million, about the same as 2009.
Integral asked investors to bear with it as it worked through defects in its financial controls that had threatened some of its U.S. Defense Department business, and promised investors in December that 2011 should be much better. With backlog promising a good year in 2012, Integral said it expected revenue to reach $240 million.
Integral Chief Executive Paul G. Casner said the company was looking for ways to reduce its operating costs, including head-count reductions.
The U.S. Defense Contracting Audit Agency (DCAA) in 2010 determined in an audit that Integral Systems has “internal control deficiencies” in the way it handled cost-plus contracts for the Defense Department, which is Integral’s biggest customer.
Casner told investors in a Dec. 9 conference call that the DCAA audit findings have not affected any contracts or revenue. But Integral said the audit could put into jeopardy the company’s future cost-plus contracts with the Defense Department.
