Compiled by Alisha Gomez
TOP STORIES
Shares of Foothill Ranch-based Skilled Healthcare Group Inc. debuted last week, raising $258 million. The nursing home owner offered 16.6 million shares at $15.50 apiece, the high end of its $14 to $16 a share forecast. The company had a market value of $600 million last week. Onex Corp., a Toronto investment firm, is Skilled’s largest shareholder with a 78% stake after the offering. Skilled runs more than 70 nursing homes and assisted living facilities in California and four other states. The company plans to use most of the proceeds to pay down debt. See story, page 1.
A judge overseeing the bankruptcy of Irvine’s New Century Financial Corp. rejected a government bid to replace the subprime mortgage lender’s management with a trustee. Last week, Judge Kevin Carey ruled that Chief Executive Brad Morrice and other executives are handling the sale of assets well. U.S. Trustee Kelly Beaudin Stapleton, who monitors bankruptcy cases for the Justice Department, had urged for the ouster of the executives because of accounting issues at the company prior to its April bankruptcy. Meanwhile, New Century auctioned off its loan servicing business for $188 million to Carrington Capital Management LLC, a Greenwich, Conn.-based hedge fund. The winning bid was 35% higher than Carrington’s original $133 million offer. The sale is set for court approval this week.
Fullerton-based Beckman Coulter Inc., a maker of medical testing and research products, last week dropped out of bidding for San Diego’s Biosite Inc., the target of a bidding war between Beckman and Inverness Medical Innovations Inc. of Massachusetts. Beckman offered $90 a share for Biosite, or about $1.64 billion. Last week, Inverness upped the ante to $92.50 a share (see Cover story).
Newport Beach-based Jazz Technologies Inc., the holding company that bought Jazz Semiconductor Inc. earlier this year, reported a wider first-quarter loss and lower sales amid the chip sector’s ongoing slump. Jazz Technologies, whose main business is making chips under contract for other companies, lost $21 million, assuming Jazz Semiconductor had been part of the company for the whole quarter. The chip plant operator was acquired in February. A year ago, the combined company would have lost $11.2 million. Revenue was $48 million, down 14% from a year earlier.
Option One Mortgage Corp., the Irvine subprime mortgage lender that’s being sold by H & R; Block Inc., is cutting 600 jobs and combining offices, trade publication National Mortgage News reported. The lender plans to close 12 mortgage processing offices and cut workers by early September. About 130 job cuts are coming locally. A Lake Forest office is set to combine with Option One’s Irvine Spectrum headquarters by July. In April, H & R; Block struck a deal to sell Option One to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP.
Clean Energy Fuels Inc., the Seal Beach company backed by legendary oilman T. Boone Pickens, could see its stock market debut this week. The company is looking to raise $345 million, making it one of the largest local stock offerings in recent years. Twenty million shares are expected to be offered at an initial price of $13 to $17. Clean Energy could see a market value of $770 million. Pickens is Clean Energy’s founder and owns about 80% of the company. Clean Energy provides natural gas and alternative fuel for trash trucks, taxis and other fleet vehicles.
Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan has been hired as a bond trading strategy consultant to Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co. Greenspan, 81, is expected to provide Pimco’s Chief Investment Officer Bill Gross with insight on the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy. He’s also expected to speak at quarterly meetings and with Pimco managers up to twice a week. Financial terms and the length of the contract weren’t released.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
The median price of an Orange County home stood at $629,000 for the second straight month in April and was down slightly from a year earlier, according to La Jolla-based DataQuick Information Systems, a unit of Canada’s MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates. Prices here now stand $1,000 below the median of a year ago. It’s the second yearly decline in prices seen here in the past three months. Median prices now are about 2% below the county’s record high, set last June. Sales in the county continue to be weak. There were 2,682 OC homes sold in April, down 25% from a year ago. Sales were down 17% from last month.
