– Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.
said its majority-owned joint venture company Reliance Pan Pacific, Pte. Ltd. completed its acquisition of Everest Metals (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., a metals service center company based near Shanghai, China. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The L.A.-based company’s Reliance Pan Pacific is a joint venture formed last October that is 70 percent-owned by Reliance and 30 percent-owned by Manufacturing Network Pte. Ltd., a Singapore company. Manufacturing Network sold its interest in Everest Metals to Reliance Pan Pacific on Wednesday. Everest’s 2005 revenues were approximately $5.5 million.
– Innovo Group Inc.
has hired Piper Jaffray & Co. as an advisor as it explores strategic options including a sale or merger of the company to raise shareholder value. The Commerce based apparel maker said it would look at strategic acquisitions, a potential sale of the company or merger with another entity and the sale of shares or assets of the company. Innovo said it won’t disclose information until its board has approved a specific transaction.
Reeling from poor financial performance, the company fired its Chief Executive Samuel (Jay) Furrow Jr. in January, replacing him on an interim basis with Marc Crossman, its chief financial officer and president. The shakeup came after Dean Factor, founder of Culver City-based Smashbox Cosmetics, resigned from Innovo’s board, expressing dissatisfaction with company management.
– Guess Inc.
said its February same-store sales rose 8.6 percent, driven by a larger percentage of full-price sales compared to the prior year. Total retail sales for the month ended Feb. 26 jumped 17 percent to $43.6 million from $37.3 million a year earlier. L.A.-based Guess owns and operates 310 apparel stores in the United States and Canada.
– Amgen Inc.
plans to increase its staff of scientists and support workers in Cambridge, Mass., to 400 during the next few years, the Boston Globe reported. Amgen’s labs would employ 200 people by the end of the year, up from the present level of 135 employees. The Thousand Oaks-based biotechnology company said it is expanding in Cambridge because of a high concentration of academic medical centers, universities and biotechnology companies in the Boston area, and because of a favorable regulatory environment in the state.
– Computer Sciences Corp.
announced that Schroders, a global asset management company in London, has renewed its IT outsourcing contract with the El Segundo-based technology service provider for an additional 7 years and 10 months, with a value of approximately $235 million. Computer Sciences said it will provide Schroders with infrastructure services for desktops and networks as well as technology support. The new contract replaces the companies’ previous seven-year contract signed in June 2001.
