Home Sales Up in June
For the 22 business days ending June 23 — latest DataQuick stats — 78 residences sold in the Newport area vs. 70 deals closed in the matching period a year ago — a 11.4% increase year-over-year.
Pimco Exec: Uncertainty Hurts Hiring
Employers are reluctant to hire because of political clashes over the U.S. budget, Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis and volatile energy costs, according to Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Anthony Crescenzi.
“Uncertainty is a risk that can’t be measured,” said Crescenzi, executive vice president and strategist at Pimco in Newport Beach, California, during a radio interview this week on “Bloomberg Surveillance.” “When people face uncertainty, they disengage. They decide that conditions aren’t sure enough that they can have workers added.”
U.S. employers added 18,000 jobs in June, the fewest in nine months, the Labor Department reported. The unemployment rate unexpectedly climbed to 9.2 percent, the highest level this year.
Acacia Settles Suit, Acquires Patent Rights
Acacia Research Corporation ACTG +0.48% announced today that its EVM Systems, LLC subsidiary has entered into a settlement agreement with Boston Scientific Corporation regarding patents for shape memory metal medical instruments.
The company also announced this week that another subsidiary has acquired rights to patents for 3G and 4G wireless technology from a major technology company, and a third subsidiary has acquired over 30 circuit patents for advanced memory and processor technology from a major technology company.
Acacia Research Corporation’s subsidiaries partner with inventors and patent owners, license the patents to corporate users, and share the revenue.
Euro Pacific Launches Fund
Euro Pacific Asset Management announced the launch of the EuroPac Hard Asset Fund. The fund, which will trade under the symbol EPHAX, is the fifth fund offered by Euro Pacific Asset Management. The new mutual fund attempts to provide capital appreciation and hedge against inflation over a long-term investment horizon by selectively investing in hard asset securities as well as those currencies that the team believes have the greatest potential for appreciation against the US dollar. As a secondary objective, the Fund seeks income from dividends and interest.
The Fund is managed by Peter Schiff, investment committee chairperson, and Jim Nelson, CFA, portfolio manager.
Pimco Hires Devir Away From Harvard
Pimco hired John Devir for its credit-analyst team, after he accepted a position as a managing director at Harvard University’s endowment, Bloomberg reported this week.
Devir has joined Pimco as an executive vice president, Mark Porterfield, a spokesman for the company, confirmed to Bloomberg. Devir was set to begin this month at Harvard Management Co., where he would have been in charge of developed-market stocks at the world’s richest school, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, university said in May.
John Longbrake, a spokesman for Harvard, said the endowment was told Devir “would no longer be joining the investment team.”
Lucescu Handles $110M Arizona Sale
Excel Trust Inc. purchased the Promenade in Scottsdale for $110 million. The blockbuster sale is one of the largest commercial transactions in the Valley in several years.
Lucescu Realty in Newport Beach, Calif., announced in a press release that the sale closed today. Excel Trust (NYSE: EXL) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust based in San Diego.
Lucescu represented the seller, but would not disclose the seller’s name other than to say it was a private investor. No other brokers were involved.
MIG Acquires Scottsdale Centre
MIG Real Estate (Merage Investment Group Real Estate), formerly known as Stoneridge Capital Partners, acquired Scottsdale Centre, a Class A office property composed of five, two-story buildings totaling 164,300 square feet in Scottsdale, AZ. The former institutional owner recently completed a $5.1 million renovation to the property. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
KBS Leases Space in Dallas Towers
Newport Beach, CA-based KBS Realty Advisors has renewed two long-term leases at its 12-story Providence Towers in the Far North Dallas submarket of Dallas. The two leases total nearly 14,000 square feet.
Providence Towers offers 515,732 square feet of office space characterized by a nine-story Neapolitan arch and polished red granite exteriors. It was acquired by KBS in 2009
