Stock Delisting Exempted for Traditional Industries

Traditional Industries’ stock faced delisting from the National Assn. of Securities Dealers’ Automated Quotation System (NASDAQ), but the NASD has given the Agoura Hills company a temporary exemption.

NASDAQ is the electronic system that joins buyers and sellers in the over-the-counter market. Traditional, a marketer of photographic supplies, faced delisting because it has not yet filed financial statements--covering its fiscal year that ended June 30 and the quarter that ended Sept. 30--with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

However, Traditional was given more time to file the documents and thus protect its NASDAQ listing, said Martin Bailey, Traditional’s senior vice president. He could not predict when the documents might be finished, but said “we’re working on them as diligently and as quickly as possible.”

The company announced in October that the financial statements were late because of uncertainty about how the company’s settlement of a dispute with the Federal Trade Commission would affect its financial results.

The FTC had complained about some sales practices at Traditional, which sells packages of film and other photographic products to consumers, notably newlyweds and new parents. In the settlement, Traditional agreed to cancel contracts with certain customers.

Separately, Traditional director William Walsh raised his stake in the company to the equivalent of 11.6% of its common stock from 9.7%.

In an SEC filing, Walsh, an investor in Menlo Park, said he acquired warrants and debt that, if converted to common stock, would give him an additional 75,031 Traditional shares, increasing his total to 462,195 shares.