Parent’s receivership
won’t affect former
Icon eye clinic

The local office is being
bought by an employee group

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By Lyn Danninger
ldanninger@starbulletin.com

Icon Laser Eye Centers Inc., the Canadian parent company of Pan-Pacific Laser Eye Institute, has been placed in interim receivership at the request of its largest creditor.

The company's Honolulu clinic will not be affected by the change, according to Milad Estivan, marketing director for Pan-Pacific. The clinic, at 1440 Kapiolani Blvd, is in the process of being purchased by a group of employees, Estivan said.

He said the new entity will be known as Pan Pacific Laser Vision Center Inc., the original name of the company before it was purchased several years ago by Icon.

Icon has 38 clinics in North America, Italy, Sweden and Britain. Some of those clinics will not be affected by the receivership because they are held either as joint ventures or by operating companies and do not require funding from Canada.

Icon's problems arose when it purchased Lasik Vision Corp., a smaller Canadian rival about three months ago following a bitter takeover battle and Lasik Vision's eventual bankruptcy.

In August last year, Lasik Vision opened an office in Honolulu to offer discount laser eye surgery. But with the company's abrupt closure at the beginning of this year, a number of patients were left awaiting surgery, refunds or post-operative care.

Pan Pacific assumed Lasik Vision's patients and all of them have been taken care of, according to Estivan. He estimates the company inherited between 60 and 80 surgical patients from Lasik Vision and has seen more than 500 people for post-operative care.

"It cost us around $185,000 to take care of them," he said.