Soyo Group Inc. looking for bigger britches

     Soyo Group Inc. (SOYO.OB) is looking for bigger britches, but the penny-stock company that's traded on OTC Bulletin Board needs investors with deeper pockets.
     The Ontario-based consumer electronics distributor's stock has taken a roller-coaster ride between October 2007 and now, falling 67 percent from its record peak of $1.48 to close at $0.49 on Thursday.
     Nonetheless, over the last two-and-a-half years the 43-employee company has gone from 800 to 1,200 shareholders and will soon be doubling its office space.
     Now Soyo wants a spot on the American Stock Exchange in New York, which means increasing its stock value to where it stood just nine months ago.
     Shareholders will be asked to approve a common stock increase from 75 million to 200 million shares at Soyo's Aug. 4 annual meeting. If approved, the company might be a lucrative prospect for institutional investors with big piggy-banks.
     "We've already filed our application for the American Stock Exchange and meet every requirement to get there, except our share price," said Ed Obrien, director of marketing.
     The company is trying to shrug off almost $5 million in losses for 2003 and 2004 and build upon its $6.5 million in earnings from 2005 to 2007.
     Some of those losses stem from Soyo's bad debts. It's customers got hit with stiff competition from companies like Dell Inc. and couldn't pay up.
     "Their direct-end user model really commoditized the motherboard industry," he said about Dell. "When that happened is when everything converted to LCD monitors and Bluetooth technology. It's difficult knowing what's going to be hot next."
     To compound the issue, Soyo was being led by managers who were "a little more old-school," Obrien said.
     The company's big news over the last year was a deal signed with Honeywell International Inc. to supply the electrical industry giant with LCD and plasma flat-panel televisions.
     Soyo went public in mid-2005 after completing a reverse merger with Vermont Witch Hazel, a Los Angeles-based skin care company.
     Soyo has a market capitalization of $26 million and contracts with manufacturing companies in Taiwan, China and Mexico.
     --matthew.wrye@inlandnewspapers.com