FINANCE
Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach agreed to pay $20 million in penalties, fees and interest to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle charges that it misled investors about one of its funds. It consented to the order without admitting or denying violating any laws. An SEC order said PIMCO’s reports on the performance of the actively managed exchange-traded fund Total Return ETF provided misleading reasons for the fund’s early success in 2012 and didn’t disclose that performance was unsustainable as the fund grew. The company overvalued the portfolio and failed to accurately value certain fund securities, the SEC said.
HEALTHCARE
Allergan Plc. said it appointed Adriane Brown to its board of directors, effective in February. Brown is president and chief operating officer of Intellectual Ventures LLC, a privately held company in Bellevue, Wash., that provides invention-related services and buys patents. Brown fills a new seat on the board. Allergan is based in Dublin, Ireland, and has U.S. offices in New Jersey and Irvine.
CareTrust REIT in San Clemente bought four skilled nursing properties in the Dallas-Fort Worth market for about $96 million and signed a new tenant to run them. It’s CareTrust’s first skilled nursing facility buy in Texas since its 2014 spinoff from Ensign Group Inc. in Mission Viejo. The price brought 540 beds and 28 assisted living units under its ownership, which works out to a purchase price of about $169,000 per bed—nearly twice the national average for beds in a skilled nursing facility, a trade journal said.
MANUFACTURING
American Vanguard Corp. in Newport Beach said its AMVAC Chemical Corp. subsidiary will help pay for research at Harvard University “to develop and potentially commercialize” technology aimed at killing the mosquito that spreads Zika and other viruses. The Aedes aegypti mosquito spreads viruses associated with Zika, Dengue and Yellow Fever. Vanguard makes chemicals and pesticides for agriculture, vector control and other uses. It plans to sell the technology, if developed into a product, to municipal government and federal contractor clients.
REAL ESTATE
Newport Beach City Council voted 6 to 1 to approve Related California’s 25-story luxury condominium project called Museum House, which will be built on the current site of the Orange County Museum of Art near Fashion Island. The approval came over the objection of Irvine Co. and a number of city residents. The museum plans to use the proceeds from the land sale to Related to move to a new home near the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa.
SERVICES
Architecture Design Collaborative will move its headquarters in January from Costa Mesa into a building it bought in Laguna Hills, and plans to hire 10 to 15 architects and related staff through the first quarter. It paid $1.2 million for a 6,000-square-foot building at 23231 S. Pointe Drive. The firm employs 25, of which seven are architects, and plans to eventually have about 70 staffers in the new digs.
TOURISM
Orange County hosts the “show of shows” this week at Anaheim Convention Center with a trade event projected to produce about 4,000 room nights over its three-day run. Expo! Expo! is the annual meeting and exhibition of the International Association of Exhibitions & Events in Dallas. About 2,000 people “organize meetings … and events (for) associations, corporations, medical [groups], government[s],” and others, Jay Burress, chief executive of destination marketer Visit Anaheim, said in an email. The roughly 260 exhibitors include service providers, such as contractors and equipment suppliers, he said.
