FRIDAY
Designer jeans maker True Religion Apparel Inc. has hired Goldman, Sachs & Co. to advise on a possible sale of the company, TheDeal.com reported, citing industry people familiar with the discussions.
The company hasn’t indicated what price it might seek, and neither Los Angeles-based True Religion nor Goldman Sachs returned calls seeking comment, the online site said. Private equity firms and clothing companies such as VF Corp. and Liz Claiborne Inc. might be interested in the company The company’s sales rose to $77 million in the first nine months of 2005; that’s more than five-fold from the year-earlier period.
In an unrelated announcement, True Religion said Friday that the appointment of InGroup Licensing as its exclusive licensing agent, effective June 5. InGroup is a leading fashion licensing company with licensed product revenues exceeding $1 billion annually in each of the past 9 years. InGroup’s management is led by Steven Seidman, a 25 year industry veteran who concentrates on developing fashion and lifestyle brands globally.
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Iconix Brand Group Inc. on Friday announced the termination of its exclusive financial advisory agreement between the company and UCC Capital, effective immediately.
New York-based Iconix said it has obtained a commitment from Merrill Lynch Mortgage Capital, Inc. to finance the cash portion of the Santa Monica-based Mossimo Inc. acquisition and is working with Merrill Lynch & Co. to explore strategic acquisitions within and outside of the apparel industry.
“As we continue with our growth strategy to build a multi-billion dollar brand portfolio and global licensing business, we will require an array of debt and equity expertise and the ability to expand our deal flow to a broader spectrum of industries,” said Chief Executive Neil Cole in a statement.
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Valencia-based 3D Systems Corp. a leading provider of rapid 3-D printing, prototyping and manufacturing solutions, said Friday that all of its outstanding shares of Series B Convertible Preferred Stock were converted by their holders into shares of the Company’s Common Stock as of the close of business on June 8 in connection with its previously announced conditional call for redemption of the preferred stock.
As a result, the Company has issued 2,639,772 shares of its common stock to the holders of the preferred stock (including 23,256 shares of common stock attributable to dividends on the preferred stock that accrued subsequent to May 5.
THURSDAY
El Segundo-based dialysis service provider DaVita Inc. has canceled a $2.68 billion refinancing of bank loans, Bloomberg News reported, citing three investors asked to join the transaction. DaVita wanted to pay interest at 1.75 percentage points over the London interbank offered rate on a $2.4 billion term loan, down from its current rate of Libor plus 2 percentage points.
The El Segundo, California-based company also was seeking to pay 1.5 percentage points on a $279 million term loan, reduced from 1.75 percentage points, said the investors, who declined to be named.
TUESDAY
Executive search firm Korn/Ferry International said that its fourth-quarter profit soared 74 percent, boosted by a one-time tax benefit and strong revenue growth. Korn/Ferry reported fourth-quarter net income rose to $20.3 million (45 cents per share) compared with $11.7 million (27 cents) a year ago. Excluding a one-time tax benefit, the company posted a profit of 31 cents, beating Wall Street estimates.
Sales at the Los Angeles-based executive search firm rose 17 percent from last year to $145.3 million, compared with Wall Street forecasts for $140 million in revenue. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected more modest earnings of 29 cents per share on lower revenue of $141.3 million. Korn/Ferry forecast a first-quarter profit before one-time items in the range of 28 to 33 cents a share, with first-quarter revenue in the range of $138 million to $145 million.
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Torrance-based institutional coffee roaster Farmer Bros. Co. said that Roger “Rocky” Laverty, an experienced food and beverage business executive, has been named the company’s president and chief operating officer, effective July 24.
From 2003 until December, 2005, Laverty was president and chief executive officer of Diedrich Coffee, an Irvine-based specialty coffee roaster, wholesaler and retailer with $53 million in 2005 revenue. He also served 19 years in executive positions with Los Angeles-based retailer Smart & Final Inc. Laverty, a 58-year-old Manhattan Beach resident of Manhattan Beach, Calif., received his law and bachelor’s degrees from Stanford University.
“We are thrilled that our long and careful nationwide search has led to such a great outcome,” said Chief Executive Guenter Berger. “Rocky will bring the skills that will help our team take to the next level our efforts to strengthen operations and grow sales. We expect to make good use of his deep understanding of the food industry and his proven ability to fuel growth.”
MONDAY
Los Angeles-based denim jeans maker
True Religion Apparel Inc.
said Monday that Chief Operating Officer Mark Saltzman is stepping down from his post, effective June 1, and that Daryl Rosenberg has been named to replace him.
Rosenberg formerly served as vice president involved in production at l.e.i., a sportswear and denim business owned by Jones Apparel Group, according to a statement by the company. Saltzman will stay on as a consultant until Sept. 30. No reason was given for his departure.
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El Segundo-based
Computer Sciences Corp.
shareholders sued company officials, saying Chief Executive Officer Van Honeycutt and other executives received improperly backdated stock-option grants.
The backdating violated the terms of the option plan and improperly increased the value of the awards, the shareholders said in a lawsuit filed June 1 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, according to a Bloomberg News report. The suit asks that executives return any money made from backdated options, which are rights to buy stock at a set price.
A Computer Sciences spokesman said the computer-services company hadn’t yet been served with the suit and couldn’t comment. The company has not reported receiving any requests for information from the Securities and Exchange Commission, but some analysts had identified the company as among several potentially having problems with its option grants.
The case is Bruce G. and Kylene D. Allbright Rev. Living Trust v. Irving W. Bailey et al, Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles, BC353316.
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Blue Bell, Pa.- based
Locus Pharmaceuticals Inc.,
a computationally-based drug design and development company, announced Monday that it has entered into a research agreement with Thousand Oaks-based
Amgen Inc.
, whereby Locus will apply its proprietary computational technologies to design novel small molecule compounds having activity against a target identified by Amgen.
Financial and other terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Locus said it has successfully applied its novel technology in six external collaborations to date, which have demonstrated significant advantages in terms of novelty, cost and speed of development.
“Given our past molecular design experience across 10 classes of protein targets, we are confident that we will identify novel chemical classes of inhibitors for Amgen,” said Jeffrey Wiseman, Lotus vice president, technology and informatics.
