TOP STORIES
One of the debt holders on the foreclosed St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort acquired all of the Dana Point luxury resort. Seattle-based Washington Real Estate Holdings LLC bougth the St. Regis in a deal estimated to be worth $235 million. Washington Real Estate had held part of $230 million in primary debt on the hotel along with Newark, N.J.-based Prudential Financial Inc. Last year, New York-based lender Citigroup Inc., which held a $70 million secondary mezzanine loan, foreclosed on the St. Regis after the prior owners fell behind on debt payments from a 2007 refinancing.
A Citigroup Inc. unit took over The Shops at Anaheim GardenWalk after no one bid on the mall at a foreclosure auction. The mall went into default after its owners failed to make payments on debt of more than $188 million. The 440,000-square-foot Shops at Anaheim Garden Walk opened in 2008
and has struggled to keep tenants and draw visitors.
TECHNOLOGY
A federal judge ruled in favor of lawyers for San Diego’s Qualcomm Inc. in a case that stemmed from a 2008 complaint by Irvine-based chipmaker Broadcom Corp. U.S. Magistrate Barbara Major found errors had occurred in patent litigation between the two chipmakers but that outside lawyers representing Qualcomm didn’t act in bad faith. The move overturned a previous ruling by the judge in early 2008.
Shares of Aliso Viejo’s QLogic Corp. slumped after the maker of electronics for data storage networks was downgraded by analyst. Canaccord Adams Inc.’s Paul Mansky cut his rating to “hold” from “buy” on concerns that QLogic’s shares aren’t likely to climb much higher. Mansky said he doesn’t see the company’s stock breaking through his price target of $21.50 until it starts beating Wall Street’s estimates, which he doesn’t expect will happen until later in the year.
HEALTHCARE
Riverside doctor Kali P. Chaudhuri bought the debt of Santa Ana-based hospital operator Integrated Healthcare Holdings Inc. He paid $70 million for loans backed by Integrated’s hospitals. The loans were sold by a court-appointed receiver for Integrated’s defunct lender, Medical Capital Holdings Inc. of Tustin. Integrated operates Western Medical Center-Santa Ana and three other local hospitals. Chaudhuri owns about half of the company.
Edwards Lifesciences Corp., an Irvine-based heart valve maker, received a warning letter from the Food and Drug Administration concerning some of its devices. The company failed to properly report six complaints about serious problems in patients treated with its devices and didn’t provide required information, according to the letter. The devices are annuloplasty rings, used to fight disorders where blood leaks backward, and a replacement heart valve.
Aliso Viejo-based drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International said it expects a big gain in first-quarter sales and sold $400 million worth of debt to fund an acquisition and pay off existing debt. The company said it expects sales for the recently ended quarter of more than $220 million, which would be up about 25% from a year earlier.
Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc., an Irvine cancer drug maker, posted a fourth-quarter profit on a onetime gain. The company swung to a $10.2 million profit from an $8.9 million loss a year earlier. Analysts expected Spectrum to lose $7.4 million in the quarter. Spectrum said its results included a $19.8 million gain after the company reclassified stock warrants as liabilities instead of as equity. The drug maker issued the warrants as part of stock offerings in 2005 and 2009. Fourth-quarter revenue was up 7% to $8.6 million, below Wall Street’s estimate of $8.9 million.
APPAREL
Foothill Ranch-based mall retailer Wet Seal Inc. reported its second straight month of higher sales in March. Wet Seal, which runs 502 stores selling clothes for teen girls and young woman, said sales at stores open at least a year rose 6.3% last month from a year earlier. Analysts were expecting a 5.4% rise in same-store sales. The gain follows a 4.7% rise in February, which was the first for Wet Seal in two years.
FINANCE
Costa Mesa’s Pacific Mercantile Bank, the largest based in Orange County, reported a narrowed fourth-quarter loss. The bank reported $6.8 million loss, or about half of what it lost a year earlier.
OTHER NEWS
Vermont-based Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. again extended its offer to buy Irvine-based coffee seller Diedrich Coffee Inc. after running into regulatory issues. Diedrich is in the process of being acquired for $290 million in cash by Green Mountain, which in December prevailed over Emery-ville-based Peet’s Coffee & Tea Inc. in a bidding war. Green Mountain’s buyout has run in-to issues with the Federal Trade Commission.
A New York-based distressed buyout firm that has acquired a stake in Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc.—owner of the Orange County Register—is making a bid for part of the parent of the Los Angeles Times. Chicago-based Tribune Co. has struck an agreement with creditors that would give control of the bankrupt company to Angelo, Gordon & Co. and others. The move raises the prospect of the Times and Register working more closely as their parent companies emerge from bankruptcy.
