StockerYale sells Salem headquarters

StockerYale Inc. sold its Salem headquarters on December 29 in order to get enough money to pay off its immediate debts and refinance, the company disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

It also said it selling privately 750,000 shares of its stock for a penny a share, according to the filing – an apparent desperate attempt to raise cash.

Company spokesman Fred Pilon would not comment on the deal.

The company sold its Salem headquarters for $4.7 million, but it plans to stay in 32,000 square feet of space there, spending $192,000 a year leasing back space in which to operate. It also plans to spend as much as $315,000 to lease another 63,000 square feet, which it plans to lease out to a third party.

The property was purchased by 55 Heritage LLC, a land investment company managed by a Jeffrey P. Gray, a corporate lawyer in Illinois.

The money, according to a the filing, would go to repay some outstanding notes and prepayment penalties to Laurus Master Fund Ltd.. It also will be used to secure another $4 million in financing. As part of the deal, the company sold some 750,000 shares of common stock to Laurus for a penny a share.

The stock was publicly trading for 90 cents per share at the time.

This is the firm’s second property sale in as many weeks. On Dec. 20, the company engaged in a similar sale-leaseback and refinancing arrangement in Montreal. That sale, Pilon said at the time, did “free up a bit of cash.”

StockerYale had less than $1.9 million in cash and cash equivalents as of Sept. 30, less than half of what it had the previous year. The company lost $1.1 million during the last quarter — a smaller loss than the one it suffered in the previous year.

In addition, the company faces a class action lawsuit over alleged insider trading and possible delisting from the Nasdaq stock exchange because it has been unable to keep its stock price over a dollar since September. – BOB SANDERS