APPAREL
Midlothian, Texas-based Ennis Inc. said it plans to sell Alstyle Apparel LLC in Anaheim to the newly formed Alstyle Operations LLC for $76 million in cash and $12 million to cover a 60-month equipment lease. The former parent company, as part of the deal, also will assist the buyer with administrative, financial, human resources and information technology matters for up to 18 months. Irshad Ahmad will step down as Ennis’ chief technology officer and apparel division vice president to join the buyer group, and will “continue to serve as an Alstyle employee.” The private-label T-shirt manufacturer posted about $183 million in revenue for the year ended Feb. 29, down from $199.9 million during the same period a year earlier.
Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. named Ernie Sibal chief financial officer after Chris Tedford resigned “to pursue other endeavors.” The Anaheim-based teen apparel and accessories retailer filed for bankruptcy protection April 7. Sibal, who’s been with PacSun since 2008, served as vice president of real estate, construction and strategy since September and has been “instrumental in the restructuring and management of the company’s real estate portfolio.”
FINANCE
Irvine-based California Republic Bancorp was sold to Mechanics Bank in Walnut Creek in a deal worth an estimated $289 million in cash. Boards of both banks approved the deal, which pays California Republic shareholders $37.19 a share. The deal is expected to close by year-end. The Business Journal in November ranked California Republic the fifth-largest OC-based commercial bank, with $1.5 billion in assets as of June 30, 2015, up 56%. It’s assets as of March 31 were $1.8 billion. Mechanics Bank has $3.6 billion in assets and 30 branches in Northern California.
HOSPITALITY
Irvine-based Pacific Hospitality Group plans to break ground April 29 on a four-story, 145-room hotel across the street from its Meritage Resort & Spa in Napa, according to a local news report. The resort opened in 2006 with about 160 rooms and more than doubled to 323 rooms as part of a $40 million expansion in 2012 that also brought the resort’s meeting space to about 50,000 square feet. The new hotel, Meritage Commons, will add 10,000 square feet of meeting space, a food and wine village, and a swimming pool.
An affiliate of Anaheim-based Marwaha Group Inc. bought the 94-room TownePlace Suites hotel in Vista from Carlsbad-based TMACK Melrose LLC for $15 million, according to CoStar Group and public data. It’s Marwaha’s second hotel acquisition in the San Diego region this year. Both hotels sold for about $159,000 per room. Marwaha Group said in a statement that its MG Hospitality division will run the hotel and that Marwaha plans to develop and buy more hotels (see related story, page 3).
SERVICES
Baseball’s oldest rule book fetched a record $3.2 million this weekend as part of the 2016 Spring Premier auction run by Laguna Niguel-based SCP Auctions. The price of the historic “Laws of Base Ball,” written in 1857 by Daniel Lucius “Doc” Adams, is a record for a baseball document or contract and the third highest of any piece of sports memorabilia. The previous record for a baseball document was $1.2 million for Babe Ruth’s 1918 Red Sox contract, which sold in 2014. The spring auction, which featured 1,310 lots, including 166 from the Don Drysdale Estate Collection, took in $7.2 million.
OTHER
Personal finance website WalletHub ranked Irvine the 16th best city for Hispanic entrepreneurs from among the 150 largest U.S. cities. It based the ranking on data that included income growth, share of businesses owned and entrepreneurship rate. Irvine ranked No. 1 in the survey based on the percentage of Latinos who hold at least a bachelor’s degree and on their entrepreneurship rate.
