Banking and finance in brief

Study: VC nearly doubles in Q3

Management Health Solutions Inc. raised $18.4 million in venture capital funding, the most of any company in Connecticut, according to a quarterly study of the state”™s venture capital industry.

More than 1,000 hospitals use software from Fairfield-based MHS to track medications dispensed to patients and other supply chain needs.

Connecticut companies reported nearly $44 million in funding in the third quarter, of those tracked in the MoneyTree report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, using data from Thomson Reuters.

 

Prudential signs new lease

Prudential Financial took a lease on nearly 30,000 square feet of space at 2 Corporate Drive in Shelton, according to the commercial real estate brokerage company C.B. Richard Ellis.

At last count, Prudential listed having nearly 900 employees in Shelton focused on annuities, real estate, and relocation services, following its 2003 acquisition of American Skandia. Prudential Financial”™s primary offices in Shelton are at 1 Corporate Drive, with both buildings owned by R.D. Scinto Inc.

 

Morgan Stanley renews lease

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney renewed an expanded lease more than 25,000 square feet of space at One Fawcett Place in Greenwich, according to Newmark Knight Frank, a commercial brokerage company with an office in Greenwich now owned by New York City-based  BGC Partners.

In the third quarter, financial services companies account for nearly a third of the lease transactions in Fairfield County, according to Newmark Knight Frank.

 

Merged Caris Dillon debuts

M.M. Dillon & Co. is merging with San Diego-based Caris & Co. to form Caris Dillon, providing investment-banking services to small and mid-cap companies in growth industries.

The companies did not disclose financial terms of the deal. They formed a strategic alliance last March at which point they first introduced the Caris Dillon moniker.

Stamford-based M.M. Dillon was established in 2003 as the investment-banking arm of CRT Capital Group L.L.C., and was spun out as an independent company in 2009.

 

Credit bureaus, state settle

The three major credit bureaus reached a settlement with Connecticut, which had claimed the companies misrepresented the meaning of their public bond credit ratings and unfairly gave lower credit ratings to public bonds.

Connecticut is to receive a $900,000 credit from Moody”™s Investors Service Inc., Standard & Poor”™s and Fitch Inc., which will be used to offset the expense of obtaining future credit ratings on sales of state bonds.

Connecticut”™s lawsuits against Moody”™s, S&P and Fitch, filed in July 2008, were the first of their kind brought by a federal or state enforcement agency, according to Attorney General George Jepsen, with the suits originally filed by his predecessor U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

Connecticut had alleged that public bonds frequently received lower credit ratings than corporate bonds, even though the rating agencies”™ own studies showed that public bonds were far more likely to be paid back than their corporate counterparts.

 

InPhase files for protection

A portfolio company of Westport-based Signal Lake filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors, after developing holographic storage systems.

According to the Denver Business Journal, Longmont, Colo.-based InPhase Technologies furloughed 60 workers last February before resuming operations later in the year. The company raised $94 million in funding from Signal Lake and other backers, after being spun out of Bell Labs heading into 2001.

After focusing on telecommunications and networking, Signal Lake is now expanding its investment focus to energy and green technologies. The company also has a Boston office.

 

Evolve seeks state branch

Evolve Bank & Trust petitioned to open its first Connecticut office in Danbury, where it plans to produce loans.

The Arkansas-based bank has offices in New York, including in Brewster to the west of Danbury, and in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.