A joint venture between a Canadian investor and a Florida property management firm has acquired two Cary apartment complexes for $55.7 million.

Timbercreek U.S. Multi-Residential Opportunity Fund #1 paid $25.6 million for the 344-unit Woodbridge apartments and $30.1 million for the 444-unit Hidden Oaks apartments, according to Wake County property records.

The fund is a partnership between Toronto-based Timbercreek Asset Management and Elco Landmark Residential of Jupiter, Fla., which will manage the properties.

The fund, created last fall, targets apartments in the Southeast that are mismanaged, mispriced or in some sort of distress, said Carrie Morris, marketing manager for Timbercreek. The fund then renovates and repositions the properties with plans to sell them within a two to three year timeframe.

The fund raised $150 million initially, and is in the process of raising more capital.
Before the two Cary acquisitions, the fund’s portfolio included 1,380 units in four properties in Austin, Charlottesville, Va., Charlotte and Chapel Hill.

Lenovo laid off what it described as a "small" number of employees and contractors last week at its headquarters in Morrisville.

The moves were made as part of Lenovo’s efforts to diversify into products beyond PCs, a strategy that the company has dubbed "PC Plus."

"The staffing reductions are limited to roles that are no longer required as we rebalance our skills, function by function, department by department to focus more on our PC Plus strategy," Ray Gorman, a company spokesman, said in an email.

"It’s a small enough number that we will not be announcing or reporting it."

The corporate parent of Four Oaks Bank and Trust reported an 86 percent decline in net income in the first quarter.

Four Oaks Fincorp reported net income of $77,000 in the first quarter, down from $552,000 a year ago.

Net interest income before the provision for loan losses totaled $5.3 million, down from $5.9 million.

Nonperforming loans -- loans where payments are past due 90 days or more -- increased to $38.4 million from $36 million as of Dec. 31.

Johnston County-based Four Oaks has 16 branches in North Carolina after completing the sale of branches in Southern Pines and Rockingham to First Bank, based in Troy, N.C., in March.

Indian pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy has agreed to pay $8.7 million to North Carolina as part of a larger settlement stemming from allegations that the company sold generic drugs that failed to meet federal quality standards.

North Carolina's settlement money will go toward Medicaid and the state's public schools, the office of Attorney General Roy Cooper said Friday.

A number of states, including North Carolina, and the federal government alleged that Ranbaxy sold 26 generic drugs manufactured between April 1, 2003 and Sept. 16, 2010 that fell short of standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Ranbaxy agreed to pay a total of $350 million to the states and the federal government to resolve allegations of poor manufacturing practices. It also pleaded guilty to seven felony violations of federal law and will pay $150 million in criminal fines.

The sub-par drugs meant that false or fraudulent claims were submitted to government health care programs, including North Carolina's Medicaid program, according to the Attorney General's office.

"Frauds like this waste taxpayer dollars and potentially put at risk the health and safety of patients," Cooper said in a statement.

New single-family building permits were up 65 percent in Wake County through the first four months of the year, according to data compiled by the Home Builders Association of Raleigh-Wake County.

Permits are up in all Wake County municipalities except Garner and Knightdale.

The biggest percentage increases were in Fuquay-Varina, Rolesville, and Wendell and Zebulon. Permits were also up 92 percent in Raleigh, 75 percent in Cary, 61 percent in Morrisville.

Duke Energy Progress shut down the Shearon Harris nuclear plant in Wake County on Wednesday after the company discovered that the reactor vessel, which contains the plant's nuclear fuel, showed early indications of corrosion and cracking.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported this morning that the discovery was made this week during a review of ultrasonic data. It showed a 1/4-inch flaw in the reactor vessel head, the name for the lid that is bolted on top of the vessel to maintain superheated water under high pressure.

The defect did not penetrate the vessel wall, which is about 6 inches thick, and there is no indication that radioactive water leaked out of the vessel.

"The reactor is shut down and our repair plans are in progress," said company spokeswoman Kim Crawford. "There is no impact to public health or safety as a result of this issue."

A startup manufacturer of firearm ammunition plans to hire 150 people over three years for a new facility in Lumberton, about 100 miles south of Raleigh.

Cape Fear Arsenal, a 3-year-old company with just seven employees today, would receive $1 million in state and local incentives for meeting the hiring targets and investing more than $15 million in a new manufacturing facility.

The company expects to sell cartridges, projectiles and cases to law enforcement agencies, said CEO Dave Hargitt. Customers could also include state and federal agencies as well as other manufacturers who buy components and assemble them, he said.

The jobs will include managers, press operators, machinery operators and forklift operators. The positions will pay an average wage of $41,559, plus benefits, which is about $15,000 a year more than the average annual wage in Robeson County.

Quintiles is touting its new, five-year agreement with European pharmaceutical company Merck Serono as a novel approach in drug-development.

Financial details weren't disclosed.

Under the deal announced Wednesday, Durham-based Quintiles will be the "sole primary provider" of drug-development services for Merck Serono -- which means it will provide the bulk of services, with niche providers filling in with specialty services that Quintiles doesn't offer. The novel part of the deal is that Quintiles also will collaborate extensively on drug-development strategy.

"We will be providing input throughout the drug-development process," said Quintiles spokesman Kevin Nash. "We're going to be making decisions together."

The aim of the collaboration is to create a "streamlined, more efficient process," Nash said.

Merck Serono is the biopharmaceutical division of Germany-based Merck, which last year generated $14.5 billion in revenue from its drug, chemical and life science businesses. Merck Serono is not connected to U.S. pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co., although both share common roots.

Right on the heels of last week's successful initial public offering that raised hundreds of million of dollars from investors, pharmaceutical services giant disclosed in a securities filing that it plans to cut about 400 jobs worldwide this year.

To put the cutbacks in perspective, the 400 jobs amounts to about 1.5 percent of the Durham-based company's 27,000 jobs worldwide. In addition, spokesman Phil Bridges said the company also has 900 open positions worldwide that it is seeking to fill.

Quintiles said in a statement that "the size and composition of our workforce routinely fluctuates based on project and business needs.  Also, it is equally important to note that Quintiles’ workforce has grown over the last five years."

Bridges declined to comment on the impact of the job cuts on the company's more than 2,000 Triangle workers.

Quintiles helps pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies test experimental drugs. It also assists its customers with selling and marketing prescription medicines after they win regulatory approval.

Quintiles reported in the securities filing that the job cuts will save it between $15 million and $20 million annually. It also took a $1.9 million restructuring charge in the first quarter as a result of the cutbacks.

When Quintiles filed for its IPO in February, it reported that it has been implementing "periodic restructurings" to cut costs in the face of a competitive landscape that has put pressure on prices.

Last week Quintiles and its private shareholders sold about 23.7 million shares at $40 each in its IPO. About 45 percent of the nearly $950 million in total proceeds went to the major shareholders, including founder and executive chairman Dennis Gillings; Quintiles itself netted $489.8 million after fees and expenses.

Quintiles shares rose $1.11 to $44.33 on Tuesday -- its high since going public.

The law firm Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein is moving a block south from the Wells Fargo Capitol Center in downtown Raleigh to Highwoods Properties' PNC Plaza building at 301 Fayetteville Street.

Parker Poe will occupy about 50,000 square feet of space in PNC Plaza after its current Wells Fargo lease expires next year.

Parker Poe will sublease space now occupied by PNC. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

The new space is about the same square footage as the firm's current offices in the Wells Fargo Capitol Center.

Parker Poe's managing partner, Tom Griffin, said in a statement that the PNC Plaza space can be configured to accommodate significantly more attorneys that its current space.

Parker Poe has 52 attorneys and 41 support staff personnel in its Raleigh office.