Automotive
AutoGravity Corp. in Irvine signed Fletcher Jones dealerships in five markets to its mobile application-based car sales and financing venture. Dealerships in Southern California, Northern California, Hawaii, Nevada and Illinois are included. Fletcher Jones’ Newport Beach location sold about $656 million in vehicles last year. The auto group as a whole had sales of about $2.3 billion. AutoGravity’s app and website let car buyers choose a new car from among 43 manufacturers and get four lending offers online; transactions are processed at dealerships.
Apparel
AST Sportswear Inc. in Brea plans to take over operations at the 95,000-square-foot former American Apparel dyeing and finishing plant in Hawthorne in Los Angeles County. The deal will enable the clothing manufacturer “to bring virtually all of its dyeing volume in-house,” creating about 120 jobs, according to AST.
Quiksilver Inc. in Huntington Beach added the former chief executive of Danone to its board of directors.
Franck Riboud, who joined the France-based dairy giant in 1981 and still serves as its chairman, will help the footwear and apparel manufacturer advance its “ongoing transformation efforts,” said Chief Executive Pierre Agnes.
Finance
A major shareholder of Irvine-based Banc of California wants it to hire an independent firm to investigate possible connections with Jason Galanis, who this year pleaded guilty to securities fraud involving a separate company. Chicago-based PL Capital—the second-largest shareholder in Banc of California, with a stake of nearly 5%—said the bank has “a crisis of confidence and credibility” and needs to determine whether any connections exist between the bank’s leaders and Galanis, according to a letter obtained by the Los Angeles Times. Banc of California is the largest bank in Orange County by assets, with about $10.2 billion. Separately, Banc of California sold a lending division and a number of loans for about $10 million. The Commercial Equipment Finance Division went to Hanmi Bank, a subsidiary of Hanmi Financial Corp. in Los Angeles that provides banking services primarily to the Korean-American community. The sale included loans of $234 million.
Healthcare
HealthCare Select in Dana Point was bought by Aya Healthcare in San Diego on undisclosed terms. HealthCare Select provides software to manage contract labor at hospitals. Aya provides contract nurses to some 3,000 U.S. hospitals. Aya has 494 employees; HealthCare Select has 23. The companies plan to consolidate operations in San Diego and expand their services for clients.
Newport Beach-based Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian was certified as a Comprehensive Stroke Center by Milford, Ohio-based DNV GL Healthcare USA Inc. It’s the second DNV GL-certified hospital in California and the first hospital in OC to receive the accreditation, according to the hospital. Comprehensive stroke centers represent the most advanced stroke treatment available in a given geographic area, according to DNV.
Real Estate
Irvine-based HCP Inc. agreed to sell a portfolio of 64 properties leased to Brookdale Senior Living Inc. for $1.1 billion to affiliates of Blackstone Group in New York. Proceeds will be used to pay down debt and for general corporate purposes, HCP said in its third-quarter earnings report. The transaction is expected to be completed early next year.
Services
Cooperative Strategies LLC in Irvine and DeJong-Richter LLC in Hilliard, Ohio, will combine to help plan and finance educational facilities nationwide under the Cooperative Strategies name.
Technology
Microsemi Corp. in Aliso Viejo hired Bank of Montreal to find buyers for the company after Skyworks Solutions Inc., in Woburn, Mass., expressed interest in buying the company. Microsemi maker beat out Skyworks last November for the $2.5 billion acquisition of Sunnyvale-based PMC-Sierra Inc., another chipmaker.
The Lake Forest-based software development arm of Schneider Electric said it plans to acquire software development company MaxEAM in Burlington, Ontario, Canada, on undisclosed terms. Schneider is an energy management, hardware, software and services company in Rueil-Malsaison, France, with clients in 100 countries and 160,000 employees firmwide. It employs an estimated 540 locally.
