Centro Properties Group’s decision to sell the Cortlandt Towne Center does not mean the Australian shopping mall giant plans to pull out of the Lower Hudson Valley, a company spokesman said today.
But Centro’s sale of the Cortlandt mall to Acadia Realty Trust of White Plains sharply reduces Centro’s profile in the region. The mall was the largest of eight properties Centro had in Westchester and Rockland counties; at 646,000 square feet, it accounted for about half of Centro’s 1.2 million square feet in the region.
The company has not put the other seven retail centers on the block, said Jocelyn Bugay, an administrative assistant in the acquisitions section of the company’s Manhattan office.
Bugay confirmed that Acadia paid $78 million for the mall. The deal closed Thursday, she said. Centro was scrambling for new financing last year after several years of broad expansion; its financial problems drove its stock down to mere pennies.
This month the company said it had secured long-term financing, but at terms that diluted the holdings of shareholders.
Centro has shopping centers in Hartsdale, Mamaroneck, Yonkers, New Rochelle, and Nanuet.

Reach staff writer Jerry Gleeson at jgleeson@lohud.com or 914-694-5026.

U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer said that he doesn’t want Rockland County’s economy to suffer in the aftermath of a blockbuster deal in the drug industry. Four days after Pfizer Inc. announced a $68 billion buyout of rival Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc., Schumer said a high priority is keeping Wyeth’s plant in Pearl River open.

The future of the 3,100-worker factory became uncertain after Pfizer said it plans to lay off 19,000 workers and close five factories after the deal closes. The factories on Pfizer’s closing list have not been identified.

Schumer’s office said the senator made a personal phone call to Pfizer Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Kindler urging the company to keep the jobs in Rockland County and across New York state.

“These are tough economic times and we must make sure that we hold onto these much-needed jobs in Rockland County,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a written statement. “The Wyeth plant in Pearl River has a world-class workforce and I wanted to make sure that at the highest level, Pfizer understood what a great job these employees do.”

SEMX Corp., an Armonk-based electronic materials manufacturer, said that it has completed a merger with a subsidiary of Coining Holding Co. a Saddle Brook, N.J.-based manufacturer of electronic materials. Under the deal, SEMX will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Coining. SEMX said that its shareholders will receive about 2.5 cents a share in the transaction.

Churchill Ventures Ltd. of Scarborough said its shareholders voted today to dissolve the company after it was unable to consummate a business deal for which it was created. Formed in June 2006, Churchill Ventures raised $107.5 million to buy an operating business in the communications, media or technology industries within an 18- to 24-month period.

PepsiCo Inc., the beverage and snack food company based in Purchase, said this morning it has an agreement to buy Spitz International Inc., which markets sunflower and pumpkin seeds in Canada.

Spitz will continue its Canadian operations in Bow Island and Medicine Hat, Alberta and report into Frito-Lay North America.
Pepsi said the acquisition is part of Frito-Lay’s plan to increase its nuts and seeds business.

Spitz seeds are distributed all over Canada and available in the United States.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Bunge Ltd. of White Plains said that its Asian operating subsidiary has purchased half of the owner/operator of Phu My Port in Vietnam.

Bunge said that the investment gives it greater opportunity to capitalize on the growing market for agricultural commodities in Vietnam. Market forecasts call for a 10 percent annual jump in volumes of soybean meal, corn and wheat imports in Vietnam during the next five years, according to Bunge.

Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. will hold a special meeting of shareholders on Nov. 21 to vote on the proposed acquisition of Barr by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

The meeting will be at 1 p.m. at the Hilton Woodcliff Lake in Woodcliff Lake, N.J. Barr, a generic drug manufacturer based in Woodcliff Lake, has major operations that employ 300 workers in Rockland County. The buyout was originally announced on July 18.

Pepsi Bottling Group Inc. is expanding its service territory in several fast growing Western states with an agreement to buy Lane Affiliated Cos. Inc., the eighth largest Pepsi bottler in the United States.

Lane, a family-owned business founded more than 70 years ago, is based in Colorado Springs, Colo. Its service region includes parts of Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.

It is Pepsi Bottling’s biggest acquisition of a U.S. bottler since the Somers-based company publicly listed its stock in 1999.

The sales price was undisclosed.

“Once completed, the deal will strengthen our operations by expanding our footprint across contiguous territories and enhancing our ability to meet the needs of our customers,” said Eric Foss, president and chief executive officer of Pepsi Bottling.

Lane, which employs about 600 workers, operates production plants in Colorado Springs and Tucson, Ariz. The sale is expected to be finalized during the fourth quarter.

Pepsi Bottling, the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of Pepsi-Cola beverages, has annual sales of nearly $14 billion and more than 70,000 employees worldwide. In addition to the United States, Pepsi Bottling operates in Canada, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Turkey and Greece.

Harris Connect Inc., a publisher of directories for colleges and high schools, has been sold to Wicks Communications & Media Partners III L.P., a New York-based private equity fund. The company said that current contracts and services will remain in place. The purchase price was undisclosed. Harris Connect, which publishes over 600 alumni and membership directories annually, lists dual corporate headquarters in Chesapeake, Va., and Brewster.

State regulators today approved the $4.5 billion sale of Energy East Corp. to Iberdrola SA., with a requirement that the Spain-based energy conglomerate credit New York customers $275 million.

The sale includes two New York state subsidiaries: Rochester Gas & Electric Corp. and New York State Electric & Gas Corp., which has nearly 90,000 customers in Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties.

New York was the last of four Northeastern states to weigh in on the deal. Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine previously approved the buyout.

The Public Service Commission 4-0 vote follows a non-binding determination by an administrative law judge in June that state regulators should deny Iberdrola’s takeover of Portland, Maine-based Energy East, saying the sale wasn’t in the interest of New York state residents.

Further, the judge advised that should PSC officials approve the sale, regulators should place conditions on the deal, including requiring Iberdrola to sell wind-turbine generators to prevent any possibility of electricity price manipulation.

Last month, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., urged the commission to drop its insistence that Iberdrola sell all its wind power assets, saying that requirement wasn’t in keeping with the goal of moving the state toward renewable sources of energy.

In announcing its approval yesterday, commission Chairman Garry Brown said in permitting the sale, PSC required that Iberdrola credit ratepayers $275 million as a condition in allowing the company to operate both generation and transmission facilities in the state, which the state generally views as unacceptable.

Iberdrola will also be permitted to own and operate Energy East hydroelectric plants but will be required to sell those that operate on fossil fuels, ordering the company to file a divestiture plan of such assets within 90 days of the buyout’s completion.

Iberdrola must file a written statement of acceptance of the commission’s order before the deal can close, PSC said.

IBM Corp. agreed today to pay about $215 million euros ($340 million) for Ilog SA, a French maker of business software.

The deal will enable the Armonk-based computing giant to combine its business process management, business optimization and service oriented architecture technologies with Ilog’s business rules management systems software, IBM said.

IBM’s offer represents a 37 percent premium above Ilog’s closing price on Friday.

The deal has the approval of the Ilog board, which will make a decision on the deal before Sept. 15, after which the offer will be filed with the French stock exchange authority.

Shares of Big Blue rose fractionally in trading today to $126.48 each.

L. & J.G. Stickley, a furniture and upholstery manufacturer based in of Manlius, agreed to buy the intellectual property, designs and assets of Nichols & Stone, a 151-year-old furniture compan based in Gardner, Mass.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Nichols & Stone makes a full line of furniture, including casual dining products and Windsor chairs and rockers. Stickley owns and operates the Stickley, Audi & Co. retail furniture showroom at 50 Tarrytown Road in White Plains.

Bunge Ltd., the agricultural and food processing company based in White Plains, has an agreement to buy the London-based international sugar trading operations of Tate & Lyle Plc. for an undisclosed price, the two companies said today.
The deal still needs regulatory approval.

The employees of Tate & Lyle will be transferred to Bunge.

The sugar division had fiscal 2008 sales of $2.85 billion, based on today’s exchange rates. That was down from $3 billion in 2007.

IBM Corp. of Armonk said today it has acquired Platform Solutions Inc., a privately held technology company based in Sunnyvale, Calif., for an undisclosed price.

IBM said PSI’s technologies and employees will become part of the IBM System z business unit of the IBM Systems and Technology Group.

“IBM’s strategy is to continually evolve our mainframe technology to help our clients tackle the most demanding business issues,” Anne Altman, general manager, IBM System z, said in a statement released by the company. “We will continue to move the mainframe forward through both IBM innovation and by acquiring new technologies.”

Drew Industries Inc., the White Plains company that provides parts for recreational vehicles and manufactured homes, said its subsidiary, Lippert Components Inc., completed its acquisition Goshen, Ind.-based Seating Technology, Inc. and its affiliated companies.

The purchase price of $28.4 million was funded from available cash.

Seating Technology makes products for towable RVs. This acquisition adds an entirely new product line for Drew.

Seating Technology’s sales for 2007 were approximately $40 million.

Gyrodyne Company of America Inc., a Long Island-based real estate investment trust, said that it has bought the Cortlandt Manor Medical Center for $7 million from Cortlandt Building Associates. The complex at 1985 Crompond Road features 29,811 square feet of medical office space that is 97 percent leased to 13 tenants.

Tompkins Financial Corp. used $21 million of a $25 million credit line with JPMorgan Chase Bank to finance its $30.2 million purchase of Sleepy Hollow Bancorp Inc., Tompkins disclosed in a regulatory filing today.

The deal, which merged Mahopac National Bank with Sleepy Hollow Bancorp, closed Friday.

The six Sleepy Hollow banks, in Pleasantville, Ossining, Yonkers and Sleepy Hollow, are now known as Mahopac National Bank’s Sleepy Hollow Division, said Tompkins, based in Ithaca.

The merger created a regional banking subsidiary with $750 million in assets and 15 branches in Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties, Tompkins said.

Prudential Rand Realty has agreed to acquire Nelson Vrooman Real Estate, a White Plains-based firm established more than 50 years ago that has become victim of the downturn in home sales in the Lower Hudson Valley.

“This is a very competitive market, and I knew that the best way to serve my clients and associates was to join a bigger team with more resources,” said Bill Vrooman, Nelson Vrooman founder and chief executive.

Vrooman, along with Nelson Vrooman President Mike Graessle, will join Prudential Rand as associate brokers, Prudential Rand said.

The deal, the terms of which weren’t disclosed, makes Prudential Rand the largest real-estate firm in White Plains, the New City-based company said.

As part of the transaction, Nelson Vrooman’s offices at 709 Westchester Ave. will close and combine with those of Prudential Rand at 1 N. Broadway.

The deal will also result in the transfer of 20 Nelson Vrooman workers to Prudential Rand, which has 20 offices in the Hudson Valley.

White Plains-based ConEdison Solutions has acquired Custom Energy Services LLC of Overland Park, Kan. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal is part of a ongoing corporate expansion strategy as ConEdison Solutions seeks to become a nationwide leader in energy services and energy commodity marketplaces. Custom Energy Services will give the firm a Kansas office to help reach customers in the Midwest. The company also has offices in Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina and Texas.

PepsiCo Inc., the Purchase-based beverage giant, announced that it has purchased V Water, a vitamin water brand in the United Kingdom. V Water, launched in 2005, is sold in six flavors and includes several added vitamins, minerals and herbal extracts. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“V Water provides us with a strong platform for expansion into a fast growing market, and reflects PepsiCo’s global commitment to transforming our portfolio of products and extending our range of healthier beverages,” Garrett Quigley, general manager, PepsiCo UK and Ireland, said in a written statement.

PepsiCo also announced that it has reached an exclusive bottling agreement with Britvic plc to manufacture, sell and distribute the V Water products in Great Britain.