Hill International, Marlton, said Sheikh Surour bin Mohammed al-Nahyan has given the firm an $8.1 million extension to its two-and-a-half year old, $3.2 million contract to manage construction at his $681 million Etihad Towers project in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
  Al-Nahyan, a member of the oil-rich Persian Gulf nation’s ruling family, owns the towers, along with the nearby Beach Rotana Hotel and the Abu Dhabi Mall, said Hill spokesman John Paolin.
  Hill’s business in Arabic-speaking countries has grown rapidly under Raouf S. Ghali, head of its Project Management Group (International), and other locally-based executives during the recent oil boom.

     Portico Systems, a Blue Bell firm that makes network management software for Horizon Blue Cross of New Jersey and other Blue Cross health plans, has received $7.7 million in new financing.
     That's $4.9 million from Edison Venture Fund, Lawrenceville, and $2.8 million from Safeguard Scientifics, Wayne). Edison partner Doug Petillo sits on Portico’s board, and Edison director of analysis Orlando Mendoza ran the firm’s due diligence, said Edison spokeswoman Tricia Bradley. Portico CEO Ned Moore said in a statement that Edison “will help fuel our growth and take Portico to the next level.”

The nation’s biggest banks will collect a windfall from Visa Inc.’s initial public offering later this year. (See story here). JPMorgan Chase & Co. expects to sell stock in Visa worth at least $1.2 billion during and soon after the sale, San Francisco-based Visa said in a public filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission today. Bank of America Corp. plans to sell another $660 million.
BofA and JPMorgan Chase are the top two credit card issuers, according to the Nilson Report, of Oxnard, Calif. Both banks’ card arms are based in Wilmington, Del. , where BofA absorbed the former MBNA Corp. and Chase Card Services includes the former First USA Bank.
The Visa sale could raise $19 billion, making it the biggest intial public offering in the history of the markets, accrording to Bloomberg News. 
Visa hopes to imitate rival MasterCard, whose stock rose sharply after the banks that ran both networks as cooperatives reorganized MasterCard as a for-profit company in 2006. 
National City Corp., Citigroup, Bancorp and Wells Fargo & Co. also expect multimillion-dollar payouts, Visa said. 
Even after they dump part of their load overboard, the banks will remain major shareholders, according to Visa.

Jeff Garwood, who runs General Electric's Water & Process Technologies from its world headquarters in Trevose, flew to over the weekend to join President Abdelazia Bouteflika in opening GE's new $250 million desalinization plant at Al Hamma, near the capital. 
The plant, equipped with massive sand filters, chemically treated membranes, high-pressure pumps, and electric turbines run by recycled brine, is financed by $200 million from the U.S.-backed Overseas Private Investment Co. 
On his way to Philadelphia International Airport on Friday, Garwood said the plant could purify 53 million gallons a day - enough to irrigate two million Algiers homes in the city's crowded suburbs, where water service has been intermittent. 
He said cleaner membranes and better pumps enabled the plant to burn a lot less energy than pioneer models developed in the 1970s by DuPont Co., Wilmington.
Algeria has ordered a string of new plants from several international contractors. GE Hamma is the first to go online. Garwood wants to ring the world's oceans with similar plants - and technology from Trevose.