PhillyDeals: Deals aplenty for 'people with money to invest'

Is the deal market coming back to life?

Taxpayer-backed insurer American International Group Inc. is betting it can raise $9 billion to pay back some of what it owes the Federal Reserve, by spinning off Wilmington-based American Life Insurance Co., in an initial public stock offering later this year.

Alico employs 11,000 people who manage $89 billion in policies and other assets in 54 countries. That includes 350 based at its downtown Wilmington headquarters, under chief executive officer Rodney O. Martin Jr., said spokeswoman Claire Burns.

Meanwhile, LLR Partners Inc., the $1.4 billion Philadelphia private-equity fund founded by Seth Lehr, Ira Lubert, and Howard Ross, and backed by Pennsylvania state pension investments, will pay a total of $55 million in cash and debt for I-many Inc., a Nasdaq-traded business-software firm in Edison, N.J.

The price includes 61 cents per I-many share, or $33 million, up from LLR's April offer of 43 cents, or $23 million. LLR's first offer drew rival bids.

LLR principal David Stienes said his firm was looking for other tech penny-stocks to take private. "It's an area we're focused on," Stienes said. "The next six to 12 months will be an excellent time for people with money to invest."

Also, SSG Capital Advisors L.P., the West Conshohocken distressed-company deal-maker formerly owned by National City Corp., said it had sold bankrupt Bruno's Supermarkets L.L.C., a Birmingham, Ala., chain that operates 56 groceries down South, to Keene, N.H.-based C&S Wholesale Grocers Inc. SSG also sold four pharmacy chains.

Bruno's fetched $58 million, said SSG managing director J. Scott Victor, who celebrated SSG's newly independent status with cocktails and colleagues at Union Trust Steakhouse on Chestnut Street last night.

The Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey, the "tilt-rotor" aircraft built partly at Boeing Co.'s Ridley Park plant, flies U.S. Marines in and out of war zones "faster and farther" than helicopters. But it is twice as costly to fly ($11,000 per hour) and lots more costly to build ($93 million apiece vs. projected price of $38 million), than promised. It doesn't fit some Navy ships, and it suffers from long down times and limited maneuverability, said the Government Accountability Office in its report on Osprey's performance in Iraq.

The military should study upgrading Sikorsky CH-33 helicopters, instead of spending an additional $25 billion on buying more Ospreys and $75 billion keeping them in the air, the GAO said.

A third of Boeing's 5,500 Ridley Park workers depend on Osprey for their jobs, said spokesman Andy Lee, adding that the company is working on "increasing availability" so Osprey is there when Marines need it.

Should the military use helicopters instead?

"I did the study in 2005, when I was a three-star admiral and had to purchase the Marine Corps' aircraft," said U.S. Rep. Joseph Sestak (D., Pa.), whose district includes Ridley Park. "The study showed without question that the much more cost-efficient way and the better warcraft was to go with the V-22."

GAO is right about one thing, Sestak added: "I was disappointed with the Marine Corps for not answering [GAO] questions about operational readiness." He wants the Marines to testify in more detail in Congress about Ospreys in Iraq.

But Sestak is satisfied the Osprey's down time is declining, the longer it is deployed, like other military aircraft. And he is not just saying that because it is built in his district, he added.

Research analyst Daniela R. Stundel and her team at building manager Jones Lang LaSalle have produced a remarkable handout portrait of Center City commercial real estate, including a building map, trend graphs (vacancies have risen to 12 percent, and typical rentals are down to $24 per square foot), and a cool cross section of 43 Center City towers, showing which floors are full, what is empty, and where leases expire in the next three years. Check it out here