Subject: ERC International Expects to Earn in '88 Up to $1.30 a Share
Date: Published: 9/8/88 52 lines
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    ERC International
    Expects to Earn in '88
    Up to $1.30 a Share

    FAIRFAX, Va. -- ERC International Inc., aided by strong
 growth in its environmental and information systems
 businesses, expects to earn $1.25 to $1.30 a share this year,
 Jack Aalseth, chairman and chief executive officer, said in
 an interview.
    In 1987, the provider of professional and technical
 services earned $4.8 million, or $1.13 a share, on revenue of
 $121.3 million.
    Mr. Aalseth said revenue is expected to reach $150 million
 this year and probably will exceed $170 million in 1989.
 Those estimates reflect a projected overall growth of about
 14% to 15% in revenue and profit for next year.  "We see very
 strong market growth in some of our business segments," he
 said.
    On the government services side of the company, those
 segments include information systems and defense-related
 space programs, which are growing at a rate of about 40% so
 far this year.  On the commercial side, revenue and profit
 from environmental services are running 40% to 45% ahead of
 last year's pace, although energy operations are "flat to
 down," Mr. Aalseth said.
    The company's biomedical operations, though still in
 infancy, are expanding rapidly.  This year, for example, ERC
 has won long-term contracts valued at more than $11 million
 to operate repositories in support of AIDS research.
    To focus better on its markets, ERC will reorganize into
 two subsidiaries -- a government systems company and an
 environment, energy and infrastructure unit.  Mr. Aalseth said
 the emerging biomedical business will be managed and
 developed separately.
    "We need this restructuring to position ourselves more
 clearly," Mr. Aalseth said.  "It will let us aggregate our
 resources better to go after bigger jobs."
    Under the reorganization plan, which is to be completed by
 Dec. 31, Mr. Aalseth will remain chairman of the parent
 company and will head the government systems unit.  John Gray,
 ERC's president and chief operating officer, will keep those
 duties and become chairman and chief executive of the other
 unit.

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