Stock Offerings

A Santa Ana federal judge on Monday barred Medical Capital Holdings Inc. from selling additional securities in an offering that has raised at least $76.9 million, in response to a complaint alleging fraud against the Tustin company filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition to prohibiting the financial services company from taking in more investor money, U.S. District Judge David O.

Shares of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. jumped 43% on Thursday after the world's largest real estate broker raised about $180 million in a secondary stock sale. The company, based in Los Angeles, sold 50 million Class A shares at $3.77 each, according to a statement issued Wednesday. CB Richard Ellis had abandoned plans to raise $300 million to $400 million through the private sale of convertible preferred stock.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. said Monday that doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern were removed after the completion of an offering of common stock, preferred stock and warrants provided about $2.1 billion of additional capital. The Las Vegas-based casino operator's independent accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the actions taken Friday helped to erase worries about the company's ability to continue to operate.

New York buyout firm Apollo Management is proposing to raise as much as $1.1 billion in a private placement of stock. The plan, reported by the Financial Times on Tuesday, follows moves by several other large private equity firms, including Blackstone Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., to sell stakes by going public. The company plans to sell a stake of about 12.5%, implying a market value of as much as $8.

SLM Corp., the government-backed student lender better known as Sallie Mae, said Wednesday that it would sell $2.5 billion of common and preferred stock. The company said it would use about $2 billion of the proceeds to buy back 44 million shares under an outstanding equity forward purchase contract, and the remainder for general corporate purposes. UBS Investment Bank and Citi are acting as joint bookrunning managers for the offerings, totaling $1.

Investors in DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. had reason to celebrate after the Glendale-based film studio announced better-than-expected second-quarter profit late Thursday. But the champagne quickly ran out Friday. After months of declining share prices, the company's financial results pushed DreamWorks' stock up only 1.5% to $20.61 a share. Analysts and company executives expect the shares to continue to struggle over the coming weeks, regardless of how well DreamWorks performs.

THE Julian Petroleum scandal stirs little recognition in Los Angeles today, but in the early years of the Great Depression, it was a matter of common knowledge, symbolizing not merely what President Franklin D. Roosevelt would later deplore as "a decade of debauchery and group selfishness," but also the failed hopes and dreams of the great boom of the 1920s.

If it weren't for family politics, would the Pritzkers be taking Hyatt Hotels Corp. public? Preliminary offering documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission suggest there is little other reason to sell shares in the Chicago family's crown jewel during the worst economy since the Great Depression. The documents pull back the curtain for the first time on a global hotel behemoth with a sterling balance sheet and no apparent business need to raise cash right now. From 2004 through 2008, Hyatt revenue grew from $2.7 billion to $3.8 billion.

Wachovia Corp. said Thursday that it raised $8.05 billion in an offering of common and preferred stock, exceeding its original plan of raising $7 billion. The Charlotte, N.C., bank, the nation's fourth-largest, announced the stock sale Monday, the same day it reported a first-quarter loss of $393 million and a 41% cut in its dividend. Wachovia shares rose 44 cents to $25.85.

Citigroup Inc. said Tuesday that it planned to sell $3 billion of common stock to bolster its capital levels, sending its shares down in after-hours trading. The largest U.S. bank is raising capital after suffering a $15-billion net loss over the last two quarters and reporting more than $45 billion in write-downs and credit losses since June 30. Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden said Citigroup had received "strong" interest in the public offering. The company said the issue might grow in size.