Youth Services to buy Atlantic Behavioral

Youth Services International Inc. plans to add to its portfolio another small company providing programs for troubled youths, announcing yesterday that it will buy a North Carolina firm that runs counseling centers and group homes and arranges foster care.

Atlantic Behavioral Health Systems Inc. will add about $9 million to the annual revenues of Owings Mills-based Youth Services.

Atlantic also owns half of a wilderness adventure program that serves up to 100 youths at a time. Youth Services already has announced plans to buy the company that owns the other half.

Youth Services agreed to pay $4.25 million for Atlantic and assume $1.5 million of its prospective subsidiary's debt.

The deal is Youth Services' eighth announced acquisition since it went public in 1994, according to spokeswoman Joan Stephens, though two of the deals have not yet closed.

The announcement yesterday said the parties had signed only a nonbinding letter of intent to make the sale. Each company's board of directors must approve the deal before it can take effect.

Pub Date: 4/26/96