Business news in brief

AEG Live, the Los Angeles company that is the world's second-largest concert promoter, behind Live Nation Inc., has won tentative approval to buy the Keswick Theater in Glenside for $2.8 million, according to concert-industry publication Pollstar. The seller of the 1,374-seat theater, which opened in 1928 and was designed by Philadelphia Museum of Art architect Horace Trumbauer, was promoter Jack Utsick's Worldwide Entertainment. AEG, which books the annual Coachella Festival, to be held April 25 to 27 in Indio, Calif., is making an East Coast move. The company is also promoting All Points West Festival, which is to feature headliners Radiohead, Aug. 8 to 10, in Jersey City. And longtime Philadelphia booker Jon Hampton is now booking the Trocadero for AEG.

- Dan DeLuca

The Pep Boys - Manny, Moe & Jack said it had sold 23 store locations for $74.3 million to unidentified buyers and leased them back for 15 years, with four five-year options. It was the third such deal the Philadelphia car-parts-and-service chain has made to collect up-front cash and reduce debt, chief financial officer Harry Yanowitz said in a statement. Shares closed down 24 cents, or 2.67 percent, at $8.74 on the New York Stock Exchange.

- Joseph N. DiStefano

The Travelers Cos. Inc., the insurer of homes, cars and businesses, is cutting 325 jobs as it consolidates operations amid declining profit margins. The insurer is eliminating positions in Marlton; Fall River, Mass.; Glens Falls, N.Y.; and Houston, said spokeswoman Sheila Trauernicht in an interview. The cuts are in the business that covers individuals' homes and cars, she said. The insurer, which is shutting its so-called business centers in Marlton and Fall River, will add 100 jobs at its seven remaining centers serving individuals, she said. Travelers will continue to employ 80 people in Marlton and 365 people in Fall River in jobs including sales, marketing, finance and technology, she said.

- Bloomberg News

Federal prosecutors say a suburban Philadelphia man has admitted to swindling investors of more than $5 million. Prosecutors say Edward Ronald Schnable Jr., 47, also known as Ron Schnable, admitted to running a Ponzi scheme between 1995 and 2003. Such a scheme involves paying back investors with the money given by new investors. Sentencing was not immediately scheduled after yesterday's plea. One of Schnable's attorneys declined to comment; the other did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

- AP

Carpenter Technology Corp., Wyomissing, Pa., said it expected to report fiscal third-quarter income from continuing operations of $1.00 to $1.05 a share. That compares with $1.22 a share from continuing operations a year earlier. The company's shares closed down 16 percent. The figure for this year's period, which ended March 31, excludes a onetime gain from the sale for $145 million of Carpenter's ceramics business, which will be recorded in the third-quarter results. The company said in January that its quarterly performance would be affected by softening U.S. economic conditions. The company, which will report its results April 29, makes specialty steels. Its shares closed down $9.44 at $49.86.

- Paul Schweizer

The number of new medical-malpractice-case filings in Pennsylvania fell 4.5 percent between 2006 and 2007 to 1,617, the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts announced. The number of new filings is 40.8 percent below an average of cases in 2000, 2001 and 2002, before rule changes requiring that cases be filed in the county in which the treatment took place and that attorneys obtain a certificate of merit from a medical professional before filing. In Philadelphia, the number of cases rose from 569 in 2006 to 586 in 2007, but is still less than half the total in 2002. Between 2002 and 2007, cases rose from 21 to 103 in Montgomery County. In 2007, there were 10 malpractice cases where juries awarded $1 million or more.

- Stacey Burling

Cephalon Inc., Frazer, said its oral medication to treat breakthrough cancer pain had received European regulatory approval. The medicine is an oral formulation of fentanyl for adult patients who already take an opioid medicine, such as morphine or Percocet, for underlying chronic pain. The drug, called Effentora in Europe, was approved in the United States in September 2006 under the name Fentora. Cephalon said approval by the European regulatory commission meant the company could sell the treatment in the 27 states within the European Union.

- Linda Loyd

A business summary item in yesterday's paper mischaracterized Ametek Corp.'s purchase of a plant near Robesonia, Berks County, because of incorrect information from the company. Ametek acquired KBA Holdings Inc. and its subsidiary, Reading Alloys Inc., which it plans to expand. Ametek is not buying another KBA unit, KB Alloys Inc.

Ametek Inc., Paoli, has purchased KBA Holdings Inc. and its Reading Alloys Inc. titanium powder factory in Robesonia, Berks County, from Code Hennessy & Simmons Management LLC, Chicago, and a management-led group, Ametek spokesman William J. Burke said. The price was not immediately made public. The deal doesn't include KB's other operations, but it will include an expansion of the Robesonia plant in South Heidelberg Township, which was granted a state-subsidized $4.4 million loan last year, Burke said. He added that the company has not decided whether to use the state loan, or fund the expansion internally. The Robesonia plant had sales of around $80 million last year, employs around 165, and makes powders used by aerospace, medical, military and electronics manufacturers.

- Joseph N. DiStefano

Centric Alloys Corp., Doylestown, is planning to open a Bucks County warehouse after it was tapped to handle sales and distribution of Arcelor Mittal's nickel-alloy bar and wire-rod products in North America, Arcelor Mittal vice president Guy Virrion said in a statement. "We look forward," said Centric chief executive officer Michael Walsh, "to announcing a company-owned and -managed facility in Bucks County" later this year. Centric sells and distributes specialty alloys, stainless steels and aluminum products, according to a company release.

- Joseph N. DiStefano

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills fell in yesterday's auction with rates on three-month bills dropping to the lowest level in nearly four years. The Treasury Department auctioned $22 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 1.060 percent, down from 1.450 percent last week. An additional $20 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 1.380 percent, down from 1.600 percent last week. The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,973.21 while a six-month bill sold for $9,930.23.

- AP

The Federal Reserve said yesterday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable-rate mortgages, was unchanged at 1.63 percent last week compared with the previous week.

- AP