When sports chiropractors first appeared at the Olympic Games in the 1980s, it was alongside individual athletes who had experienced the benefits of chiropractic care in their training and recovery processes at home. Fast forward to Paris 2024, where chiropractic care was available in the polyclinic for all athletes, and the attitude has now evolved to recognize that “every athlete deserves access to sports chiropractic."
Clinicorp Revisited
It has been over a year since this publication last looked at the Clinicorp organization. While there haven't been many complaints from DCs who have signed contracts with Clinicorp, one can't escape the feeling that something is very wrong. Not the least troubling is the fact that Clinicorp is losing money. Their latest press release states:
"For the quarter ended Feb. 28, 1994, the company reported a loss of $10,934,000, 47 cents per common share, on revenues of $4,094,000, compared with a loss of $3,518,000, 27 cents per common share, on revenues of $1,440,000 for the quarter ended Feb. 28, 1993."The bad news is that Clinicorp is loosing more money than last year; the worst news is that they're loosing it faster. The long- term picture is even more bleak:
"For the nine months ended February 28, 1994, the company reported a loss of $21,772,000, or $1.11 per common share, on revenues of $11,734,000, compared to a loss of $5,685,000, or 60 cents per common share, on revenues of $3,726,000 for the prior period." (The nine months ending February 28, 1992.)Consider Clinicorp's stock situation. The initial offering was 1,000,000 shares at $6.50 per share in January of 1992. In April, the stock price soared to a high of $26 per share, looking very much like a promising investment. But over the past two years, the number of shares outstanding has increased and the price of the stock has dropped like a rock.
On January 5, 1994, just two years after the initial stock offering, the stock price was $2.13 with 14,320,057 shares outstanding. On April 26, 1994 there were 29,939,244 shares outstanding. The current price of the stock is a mere 25 cents.
While it is true that a person who bought $100 of Clinicorp stock in January 1992 would still be over $30 ahead, that may not be the important issue for the chiropractic profession. How has this incredible drop in the value of the stock affected those DCs who have joined the company? Almost all of Clinicorp's purchases of chiropractic clinic have been for stock. Where would you be if you sold your clinic for stock at $22 per share in April of 1992? Even with a three-for-one stock split, where would you be now? Or even $10 per share in early 1993? What would your stock be worth now that the price has fallen to as low as 22 cents per share?
There are many questions DCs are asking about Clinicorp. The company will be holding their annual stockholders' meeting in West Palm Beach, Florida on June 22, 1994. One of the primary topics will be to "increase the company's authorized common stock from 50,000,000 to 75,000,000 shares." What would the value be after further dilution?
Clinicorp's current status and future hopes will be examined in the next part of the series. We will also seek out DCs who have sold their clinic to Clinicorp and see what they have to say about the company.