International trade and trade financing firm Loyd International Inc. gained major ownership of American Custom Components Inc. through an acquisition.
``We needed a partner who was netted into the financial community,'' said John Groom, American Custom's president since January 1998 and chief executive officer since June.
American Custom designs and manufactures high-tolerance components for the electronic connector industry and needed funding for expansion and to offset the loss of two customers that make computer disk drives.
During the next few months, American Custom plans to buy up to six additional injection molding machines with clamping forces up to 300 tons, Groom said in a telephone interview. The company needed the equipment because customers require faster cycle times.
American Custom currently operates four presses of 15-85 tons in its Santa Ana, Calif., headquarters and one small press at a plant in Vieux Fort, St. Lucia, a British protectorate in the Caribbean. Two of the new machines would go to Santa Ana and four to St. Lucia.
American Custom is targeting customers worldwide, taking advantage of Groom's seven years of experience in the Far East and Edward Loyd's 25 years in Europe.
Loyd International, of which Edward Loyd was sole shareholder, is incorporated in Wyoming. It operates now as an American Custom subsidiary and has a London sales office. American Custom named Loyd chief financial officer in mid-January and later elected him secretary and a director.
Through the March 16 deal, Loyd received 1.5 million shares of common stock in exchange for $10 million, plus $2.5 million in export sales and letters of intent worth $25 million, Groom said. Loyd also received an additional 100,000 shares for a $70,000 advance to American Custom.
American Custom acquired mold maker K5 Plastics Inc., then of Huntington Beach, Calif., in January 1998, and 98 percent of St. Lucia assembler Caribbean Electronics Ltd. in October 1997.
American Custom leases 12,500 square feet in Santa Ana and seeks to add space nearby. The St. Lucia site has 13,000 square feet.
Former CEO and major owner Martin Anthony Walk of Newport Beach, Calif., left American Custom's board in March, retaining 400,000 shares of common stock but exchanging nearly 5 million for 500,000 shares of Series A convertible preferred stock.
On March 30, American Custom retired 3 million shares of restricted common stock that Oxford Investments Inc. of Bethesda, Md., had held since July for an expected equity financing deal.
American Custom reported sales of $832,000 for the six months ended Sept. 30 and nearly $1.6 million for the same fiscal-1997 period. The firm is incorporated in Nevada, employs about 100 and began trading over the counter in October 1997.