Other news items of interest from the Orange County Business Journal
Huntington Beach-based action sports apparel maker Quiksilver Inc. continued to rework its executive team, adding three new positions that emphasize global operations. Quiksilver Europe President Pierre Agnes added the title of global head of apparel. The company hired Tom Hartge as global head of footwear and Kasey Mazzone as global head of supply chain. Separately, the company’s Roxy label joined with designer Diane Von Furstenberg for a beachwear collection called DVF Loves Roxy.
Brea-based American Suzuki Motor Corp.’s bankruptcy plan was approved last week, and the company said it expects to complete a restructuring by the end of the month. The automaker, part of Japan-based Suzuki Motor Corp., plans to eventually stop car sales in the U.S., and continue to focus on its U.S. Motorcycles/ATV and Marine divisions, which also are based in Brea.
Irvine-based Pacific Premier Bancorp Inc. agreed to buy San Diego Trust Bank for $30.6 million. Pacific Premier’s subsidiary, Pacific Premier Bank, is among the largest based in Orange County, with $1.17 billion in total assets. It has 10 branches, with five in OC, four in the Palm Desert area, and one in San Bernardino. San Diego Trust had $242 million in total assets and $188 million in deposits at year’s end. It has three branches in the San Diego area.
Costa Mesa-based Pacific Mercantile Bancorp agreed to sell $15 million worth of common stock to private equity funds owned by financial advisory firm Carpenter & Co. in Irvine, which plans to form a new subsidiary to manage the troubled asset of subsidiary Pacific Mercantile Bank. The bank had $36.3 million in nonperforming assets as of December, down 30% from a year ago. Various Carpenter funds own 26% of Pacific Mercantile stock. Carpenter & Co. founder and Chief Executive Edward Carpenter is chairman of the bank holding company.
Sorrento Therapeutics Inc. in San Diego will buy Fountain Valley-based Igdrasol Inc., a privately held cancer drug maker, on undisclosed terms. Sorrento develops and commercializes drugs for cancer and other conditions.
Tustin-based MicroVention Inc., which makes devices used to treat cerebral aneurysms and other neurovascular diseases, has opened a manufacturing facility in San Jose, Costa Rica. The company has manufacturing and administrative offices in Santa Ana and Aliso Viejo, with about 750 workers in OC. MicroVention said it has hired about 150 employees in Costa Rica, with plans for continued expansion.
Garden Grove-based Western Precision Aero LLC fetched $2.6 million in a sale to RBC Bearings Inc. in Oxford, Conn. Western Precision is a manufacturer of components for the aerospace, defense and automotive industries. RBC had sales of $411.5 million, with $61.3 million in net income last year. Its local operations include subsidiaries Transport Dynamics Corp. in Santa Ana and RBC Lubron Bearings Co. in Fountain Valley.
Los Angeles-based grocery store chain Assi Super Inc. plans to open an upscale market at the Woodbridge Village Center in Irvine with an aim of appealing to shoppers beyond its core of immigrant Asian-American customers. The Assi Natural Market will stock Asian-style products at the 35,000-square-foot store, for the most part, with an emphasis on produce from farms in the area that have been acquired by its parent company over the past year.
Raleigh, N.C.-based insurance provider MetLife Inc. will shift jobs from its Orange County offices to North Carolina in a consolidation that includes operations in five other states and is expected to bring savings of about $94 million through tax breaks and other incentives. MetLife has offices in Irvine and Aliso Viejo. The company did not provide employee counts for the local offices. The overall shift is expected to affect 2,600 jobs.
Irvine-based app maker DecisionPoint Systems Inc. secured a $10 million line of credit from Santa Clara-based Silicon Valley Bank.
Natural Products Expo West will stay at the Anaheim Convention Center through 2017 after extending its contract last week. The annual trade show showcases healthy foods, and is produced by New York-based Penton Media Inc.’s New Hope Natural Media. It’s been in Anaheim for 33 years, and was expected to draw more than 60,000 attendees for this year’s edition, which wrapped up a four-day run last week.
ECONOMIC INDICATOR
UP: Prices for homes in Orange County in January, when a year-over-year jump of 11.7% in the median was the fourth-highest among major metro areas in the U.S., according to Irvine-based CoreLogic Inc. An earlier report from DataQuick Information Services in La Jolla pegged the median price here at $460,000 for the month.
