Business news in brief

BET Investments Inc., the Horsham investment company owned by Bruce E. Toll, a founder and former executive of the Toll Bros. luxury home builder, has agreed to pay $30 million, or $93,700 per unit, to purchase the 318-unit Curren Terrace Apartments, 1011 New Hope St., Norristown, from Home Properties. BET president Michael P. Markham said that the complex is 97 percent occupied, and that his firm will renovate the complex "in an effort to maximize rents." - Joseph N. DiStefano

Towers Watson & Co. agreed to acquire DaVinci Consulting Group, a boutique actuarial consulting firm based in Yardley. Terms of the sale, which is expected to be completed by Nov. 1, were not disclosed. The principals and 10-member consulting staff of DaVinci, which specializes in long-term care insurance, are expected to join Towers Watson's Life practice and remain based in the Philadelphia area. - Mike Armstrong

Bentley Systems Inc. said it was chosen by the state-controlled water utility Aguas de Portugal SGPS SA to provide software to make the country's water and wastewater systems more efficient. No terms were given by Exton-based Bentley for the deal with AdP, whose wastewater and water networks serve 80 percent of Portugal's population. The system tools include real-time software to forecast sewer overflows and estuary discharges while providing energy savings, the privately held Bentley said in a statement. - Bloomberg News

Consol Energy Inc., the largest U.S. coal producer by market value, announced an unexpected third-quarter net loss after idling mines in response to lower demand. Precise figures aren't yet available, the Canonsburg, Pa.-based company said. Consol produced 11.6 million tons of coal in the quarter, or 22 percent less than it expected as of July 26. Consol produced 800,000 tons of metallurgical coal in the quarter, it said. - Bloomberg News

Kristin Gilbertson, the University of Pennsylvania's chief investment officer, resigned after managing one of the largest U.S. college endowments for eight years. Gilbertson will serve as a special adviser through the end of the year while the Philadelphia university begins a search for her replacement, according to a memo from Craig Carnaroli, Penn's executive vice president. David Harkins, the $6.8 billion endowment's managing director of public markets, will serve as interim chief investment officer, according to the memo. - Bloomberg News

W.L. Gore & Associates Inc., the maker of waterproof Gore-Tex fabric, asked a judge to punish one of its former top scientists, claiming he's using company secrets to start his own business in violation of a court order. Huey Shen Wu was ordered in 2006, following a lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court, to refrain from developing any products for sale related to polymers he worked on while he was with Gore, the Newark, Del., company said in a complaint filed in Delaware Chancery Court. - Bloomberg News

Social Security recipients won't be getting big benefit increases next year. Preliminary figures show the annual benefit boost will be 1 percent to 2 percent, which would be among the lowest since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975. Monthly benefits for retired workers average $1,237, meaning the typical retiree can expect a raise of $12 to $24 a month. The size of the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, will be made official Tuesday, when the government releases inflation figures for September. - AP

Federal Reserve Bank of New York president William C. Dudley said the central bank won't cut back record monetary stimulus too quickly when the economy begins to gain strength. "If we were to see some good news on growth, I would not expect us to respond in a hasty manner," Dudley said in a speech in New York on Monday. The Fed may have not used enough stimulus measures to support the U.S. recovery in the aftermath of the financial crisis, Dudley said to the National Association for Business Economics. - Bloomberg News

Morgan Stanley is being accused of discriminating against black homeowners and violating federal civil rights laws by providing strong incentives to a subprime lender to originate mortgages that were likely to go unrepaid. The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, was filed in U.S. District Court in New York on Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union and others on behalf of five Detroit residents and Michigan Legal Services. "We believe these allegations are completely without merit and plan to defend ourselves vigorously," Morgan Stanley said in a statement. - AP

Seth Glickenhaus, who began his career on Wall Street as a messenger before the 1929 crash, is closing his money-management business. Glickenhaus & Co., his New York-based firm that traces its roots to 1938, is transferring portfolio-management responsibilities for its $900 million in assets to Straus Group, a unit of Neuberger Berman. Terms of the agreement weren't disclosed. "When you get older, your vision and hearing isn't what it was and that makes it tougher to manage money," said Seth Glickenhaus, 98, explaining the reason for the transaction. - Bloomberg News

The U.S. shale boom is turning into a bust for companies that provide drilling services as the number of rigs seeking natural gas has fallen faster than any time in the last 24 years. The overall U.S. onshore rig count has dropped 9 percent this year. Those declines, caused in part by the gas industry's shift to oil production, are eating away demand for drilling services and worsening a shale-equipment glut that's pushing down prices.   - Bloomberg News