Arle Capital Partners Ltd., the London-based private equity firm that last year took public the parent company of Palace Entertainment Holdings LLC, sold a 15% stake in the parent for about $221 million to Belgium-based investor Groupe Bruxelles Lambert. The parent of Newport Beach-based Palace is Parques Reunidos Servicos Centrales SA, which is based in Madrid.
Ocean Institute in Dana Point named Dan Pingaro president and chief executive, effective April 24. He replaces Dori Dennis Moorehead and was most recently executive director for three years of Laguna Beach Community Foundation. The institute, founded in 1977 as the Orange County Marine Institute, is an ocean education center.
DK Electronic Materials Co Ltd. in Jiangsu, China, gave $1 million to the University of California-Irvine to support the work of chemical engineering and materials science Professor Frank Shi. DK supplies conductive paste for silicon solar cell manufacturing. Shi’s published research on that work and his market knowledge influenced DK founder and Chief Executive Weili Shi, who isn’t related.
Radiology and oncology center operator Alliance HealthCare Services Inc. in Newport Beach will be taken private by Tahoe Investment Group Co. Ltd. in Fuzhou, China in a deal that values Alliance at about $145 million. Tahoe Investment was formerly known as Fujian Thai Hot Investment Co., Ltd., and under that name bought 5.5 million shares in March 2016 for $102 million, after which, with previous holdings, it owned 51% of the company. The companies said Alliance will buy the remaining 5.7 million shares for $75 million, or about $13.25 per share and 38% higher than a $9.60 per-share bid Tahoe made in December.
Quality Systems Inc. subsidiary NextGen Healthcare Information Systems LLC will buy Entrada Inc. for $34 million. Quality Systems and NextGen are based in Irvine and make software to automate medical and dental practice management. Entrada, in Brentwood, Tenn., makes applications and software that allow electronic health records to be displayed on mobile devices. It reported a $2 million loss last year on revenue of $12 million.
Shareholders in troubled Ubiquity Inc. of Irvine are permitted to testify at a Security and Exchange Commission public hearing scheduled for today in Washington, D.C., according to its majority owner, Strategic Capital Management Ltd. The commission is considering whether to ban trading in Ubiquity shares or suspend them for one year. It already suspended Ubiquity’s stock from March 20 to March 31 based on “a lack of current and accurate information about the company.”
PBS SoCal KOCE, headquartered in Costa Mesa, will receive $49 million, and KDOC-TV in Santa Ana will receive $66 million, from the Federal Communication Commission’s World’s First Broadcast Incentive Auction. The auction lets broadcasters sell all or part of their broadcast spectrum for nationwide wireless mobile use in the “first-of-its kind” market for repurposing broadcast airwaves.
Five Point Holdings LLC in Aliso Viejo refiled its registration to go public and set a placeholder value of $100 million on the offering. The community developer last year combined several California communities under one company and filed a draft IPO registration in July 2015, but didn’t go public then. It reported $39 million in 2016 sales.
Irvine-based Vizio Inc.’s $2 billion sale to Chinese conglomerate LeEco was terminated due to “regulatory headwinds,” the companies said last week. The Business Journal reported earlier this year that the deal was in jeopardy and its failure to close provides a new path for one of OC’s best-known brands. The consumer electronics brand pondered a public offering in 2015 before being courted by LeEco and agreeing to the sale in July.
Irvine-based Western Digital Corp. led a $33 million strategic funding round for a Northern California company that specializes in flash storage systems. The funding round for Newark, Calif.-based Tegile Inc. included prior backers Meritech Capital, Capricorn Investment Group and Cross Creek Capital. Tegile said proceeds are earmarked for technology development, product innovation, and global expansion. The deal is at least Western Digital’s second strategic investment this year (see related story, page 1).
Irvine-based Ingram Micro bought the business assets of Dubai-based Network Information Technology, a distributor of security solutions in the Middle East and Africa, the company said. Terms were undisclosed.
