Irvine-based First PacTrust Bancorp Inc. will offer an undisclosed amount of senior notes in a public offering. Proceeds will be tagged for acquisitions and other areas. First PacTrust is in the process of acquiring Gateway Bancorp and Beach Business Bank, both based in the Los Angeles area.
Several dozen workers at the Fullerton unit of Massy, France-based ThalesRaytheon Systems were reportedly included in a layoff. The company, which provides networking services to the aerospace industry, didn’t announce specific numbers for layoffs here or company- wide.
Aliso Viejo-based medical-device company WaveTec Vision announced a $16.5 million funding round. Investors were led by Burrill & Co. in San Francisco. Proceeds will help WaveTec bring a new cataract-surgery system to market.
Haymarket Media sold Irvine-based Racer Magazine and its website to an investor group on undisclosed terms. The buyers group, which also gets a custom-publishing operation in the deal, includes Racer co-founders Rob Dyson and Chris Dyson, and marketing veterans Paul Pfanner and Bill Sparks.
U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Guilford dismissed a suit by Newport Beach-based developer Igor Olenicoff, who had accused Swiss bank UBS AG of fraud and conspiracy in its handling of $200 million in deposits in his offshore accounts. Olenicoff said UBS advised him the funds didn’t have to be reported to the IRS. The judge said Olenicoff might have gotten bad advice, but noted an earlier guilty plea by him in the tax case.
Japanese bargain retailer Daiso opened its first OC store in Irvine, specializing in items selling for $1.50. The Heritage Plaza location is the company’s second in Southern California, following the opening of a Daiso store in Torrance in March.
In-N-Out Burger operated a pop-up restaurant in Tokyo for one day last month. A spokesperson said that the Irvine-based burger chain has no plans to expand into Japan at present, but added that pop-up events provide market insights for possible future consideration.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority approved plans for the state’s so-called bullet train, inserting a goal of eventually providing service to Orange County with a stop in Anaheim. The project awaits an initial $2.7 billion funding approval by the state legislature to begin construction of an initial 130 miles of track to run from Los Angeles to Bakersfield. The plan that includes an Orange County stop eventually would go as far north as San Francisco and require additional funding, taking the project’s total cost to $68 billion.
ECONOMIC INDICATOR
MIXED: The picture on bankruptcy filings by individuals and businesses in the region during March. Filings for the month fell 25% compared with a year earlier, according to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s Central District of California, which includes Orange County. Data from L.A.-based Epiq Systems Inc. show that the total of 10,107 filings in the seven-county Central District was the highest in the nation and roughly twice the number of new cases in Chicago, which had the second-highest level among all U.S. metropolitan areas in March.
