ICN Acquires 5% Stake in Syncor International

ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. said in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it has acquired a 5% stake in a Sylmar distributor of nuclear pharmaceutical products.

The Costa Mesa-based drug maker said in its SEC filing that its holdings in Syncor International Corp. are for investment purposes only and that it “has no present plans to participate in the management or control� of the company.

According to its filing, ICN made a dozen open market purchases of Syncor stock between Feb. 10 and April 8, acquiring 195,000 shares at $6.625 to $7.125 a share. Previously, ICN held about 245,000 shares, said John Giordani, its chief financial officer.

ICN said accumulating its 556,500-share stake in Syncor cost the drug maker about $3.9 million, including brokerage fees. At Monday’s closing price of $6.875 a share on NASDAQ, that stake is now worth $3.8 million.

Syncor, which had fiscal 1986 net earnings of $1.6 million on revenues of $93 million, distributes radio-pharmaceuticals. ICN Biomedicals Inc., one of ICN’s three publicly held subsidiaries, manufactures radioactive isotopes, “so there is a logical connection,� said analyst Eugene Melnitchenko, of the Dallas brokerage of Eppler, Guerin & Turner Inc.

Melnitchenko and Craig Dickson, an analyst with the Charlotte, N.C. investment firm of Interstate Securities Corp., said it appeared unlikely that ICN is interested in acquiring Syncor.