SOUTH KINGSTOWN — A Pennsylvania company is the new owner of American Biophysics Corp. — the North Kingstown company that makes the Mosquito Magnet.

Woodstream Corp., of Lititz, Pa., will pay about $6 million for American Biophyics in a purchase overseen by a court-appointed receiver. American Biophysics’ customers, many of them national retail chains such as Home Depot, owe the North Kingstown company more than $4 million, according to the receiver, Jonathan N. Savage. That’s money Savage said he expects to collect, pushing the ultimate value of the company to more than $9 million.

Unclear is whether Woodstream will keep American Biophysics’ operations in Rhode Island.

Savage was in Washington County Superior Court yesterday to auction off American Biophysics, which was placed into state receivership last year because it was unable to pay off debts of $7 million. Receivership is a form of bankruptcy where a court appoints a trustee to either liquidate a company or sell its assets to pay the accumulated debt.

American Biophysics garnered national attention earlier in the decade as sales of Mosquito Magnet — a mosquito-killing device — made it the nation’s fastest-growing private company.

But it struggled to profit from the sales and fell under court protection.

Last November, Washington County Superior Court Judge Stephen P. Nugent appointed Savage trustee of the business.

Savage set about finding a buyer for the company, an effort that generated interest from around the country and Canada, Savage said.

At least three of those interested entities — including Woodstream — were expected to bid on the company yesterday.

The auction didn’t happen though, as one potential bidder never arrived in court and a second declined to outstrip a pre-auction offer of $6.5 million that Woodstream had made.

That left Savage to spend the morning settling with Woodstream on the details of a purchase and the final price, which fell to slightly more than $6 million.

The purchase does not include $500,000 that American Biophysics has in its bank accounts or about $4.2 million in accounts receivables the company is carrying on its books, Savage told the court.

Savage used about $1.4 million of a $2-million credit line to keep the company operating through the process, money that will have to be paid back out of the sale proceeds and bill-collection efforts. The credit-line debt was added to the $7 million that American Biophysics owed at the time it went into receivership.

Nugent approved the sale, after listening to lawyers representing various company creditors.

“It looks like we’ll be able to reach deep into the creditors’ pool with that [money],” Savage said after the court session.

Woodstream is a maker of pest-control products that it markets under the Havahart, Safer and Victor brands. It makes living-animal traps, animal-carrying crates, animal-pen fencing, animal repellants and bird feeders. It had licensed the Mosquito Magnet name to American Biophysics.Woodstream is owned by Brockway Moran & Partners, a private-equity firm in Boca Raton, Fla.A company representative did not return phone calls made yesterday seeking comment.

American Biophysics employs about 50 people, all in Rhode Island.

pgrimald@projo.com