This past week’s news from www.ocbj.com and other sources
TOP STORIES
Aliso Viejo’s FivePoint Communities Inc. reworked financing on its stalled Heritage Fields project at the former El Toro Marine base in Irvine and could start homebuilding next year. FivePoint got its mortgage on the property cut from $775 million to $200 million and a $200 million line of credit in a deal with Boston’s State Street Bank & Trust Co. and others. Heritage Fields calls for 5,000 homes and 5.2 million square feet of commercial space. Miami-based Lennar Corp. bought the former base in 2005, borrowing $775 million from now-bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and raising another $700 million from investors. FivePoint, which is owned by Lennar, took over the development in 2009. State Street last month got bankruptcy court approval to buy Lehman’s $775 million mortgage tied to Heritage Fields for $153 million.
New York-based private equity firms Blackstone Group LP and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. are joining forces on a bid for Brea-based Beckman Coulter Inc., according to Reuters. Initial offers for Beckman, which makes machines and chemicals used by medical testing labs and researchers, were due before Christmas, and the company reportedly encouraged private equity firms to join forces for a second round. The report indicated that New York-based Apollo Global Management LLC could team with Carlyle Group of Washington, D.C. Danaher Corp., a Washington, D.C.-based conglomerate that owns Sybron Dental Specialties Inc. of Orange, and remains a likely corporate bidder. Beckman, which has a market value of about $5 billion, is wrestling with challenges stemming from last year’s recall of a profitable heart disease test called troponin. Private equity firms could be looking to take Beckman private and give it cover as it works through its issues before taking it public again.
Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co. agreed to pay $92 million to settle a lawsuit contending that it tried to corner the market in futures tied to the price of 10-year Treasury notes in 2005. Chicago-based Breakwater Trading LLC and other plaintiffs had “short” positions in the futures contracts and were liable to supply Treasuries to Pimco when those contracts expired. They charged that they had to pay artificially high prices to fulfill the contracts because Pimco manipulated the market with large purchases of the notes. Pimco denied any misconduct in the settlement, which must be approved by a court.
REAL ESTATE
Santa Ana-based CoreLogic Inc., a provider of data to real estate and mortgage companies that emerged from a June split of title insurer First American Corp., is selling two units for $265 million and plans to put the proceeds toward acquisitions. CoreLogic is selling its employer services and litigation support units to Palo Alto-based private equity firm Symphony Technology Group LLC. The units provide data, consulting and other services to law firms, banks and big and midsize companies. CoreLogic’s other units provide data and services to mortgage lenders, banks, employers, landlords and others. The company said it is seeking acquisitions
more in line with its core operations. Symphony Technology is the majority owner of Santa Ana software maker MSC Software Corp., which it bought for $372 million in 2009.
MANUFACTURING
Costa Mesa-based Ceradyne Inc., a maker of bulletproof vests and other products, has agreed to pay up to $49 million for a maker of specialty glass used in electronics, industrial and healthcare products. The deal calls for $27 million in cash plus another $22 million for Seattle-based Viox Corp. if the business meets goals in the next two and a half years. Viox counts on specialty glasses used in solar panels for about 70% of its $22 million in annual sales. Sales to the solar industry are a growing part of Ceradyne’s business, now making up about 15% of about $400 million in yearly sales. Ceradyne has been diversifying from its main body armor lines since seeing a boom in sales to the military during the peak of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
FINANCE
Irvine-based auto financier Consumer Portfolio Services Inc. struck deals totaling $120 million in financing for auto loans to be sold as bonds to Wall Street. Consumer Portfolio got a $100 million, two-year warehouse credit line with affiliates of Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Fortress Investment Group LLC, both of New York. The company also struck a $20 million debt financing deal with Los Angeles-based Levine Leichtman Capital Partners. The financial crisis of late 2008 killed Consumer Portfolio’s business of selling loans to investors. In September, the company made its first securitization in two years, an offering worth $85 million.
HEALTHCARE
Irvine’s AccentCare Inc., a home healthcare company that provides skilled-nursing services in California and six other states, acquired Guardian Home Care Holdings Inc. of Brentwood, Tenn., for an undisclosed price. Guardian serves patients in Tennessee, Georgia and Texas. The combined company will retain the AccentCare name and be based in Irvine under Accent Care Chief Executive William “Biff” Comte. AccentCare, which has some $200 million in annual revenue, now is primarily owned by Stamford, Conn.-based Oak Hill Capital Partners, a private equity firm with more than $7 billion under management.
