Houston Business Journal News

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and pharmaceutical manufacturer Actavis Mid-Atlantic LLC and Actavis Elizabeth LLC made an $84 million settlement agreement on Wednesday. The agreement resolves the state’s civil Medicaid fraud enforcement actions against Actavis. Actavis was charged with defrauding the taxpayers and improperly reporting drug prices to the Texas Medicaid program. The settlement agreement allows the Attorney General’s office to recover $29.23 million for Texas’ general revenue fund...

Prosperity Bancshares Inc. has completed the switch of its stock listing from the Nasdaq Global Select Market to the New York Stock Exchange. The Houston-based bank holding company began trading Wednesday on the NYSE under the new ticker symbol “PB.” The company previously traded under the ticker symbol “PRSP.” Prosperity Bancshares is the parent company of banking subsidiary Prosperity Bank.

The Nation’s Restaurant News awarded Brennan’s of Houston with a spot in its Fine Dining Hall of Fame earlier this month. The sister restaurant to New Orleans’ Commander’s Palace, Brennan’s serves high-end Southern cuisine. The Nation’s Restaurant News noted Brennan’s perseverance after closing from Hurricane Ike damage in 2010. The news also pointed out the restaurant’s use of local ingredients and Southern hospitality. Four other restaurants were inducted into the Fine Dining Hall of Fame this year, including Rioja in Devner and Coi in San Francisco...

Whitestone REIT (NYSE Amex: WSR) closed its purchase on Wednesday of the Shops at Starwood, a North Dallas-area retail center, for $15.7 million in cash. The Houston-based real estate company also purchased an adjacent 2.73-acre undeveloped parcel of land for $1.9 million, which was mainly funded through a loan. Whitestone could add up to 36,000 square-feet of retail and executive office space to the development site. The Shops at Starwood is a Class A retail center with 55,385 square feet of leasable space...

Flotek Industries Inc. (NYSE: FTK) said Wednesday it will retire about $36 million in debt by buying back bonds in cash and with interest. Flotek president and chairman John Chrisholm said in a statement that the Houston-based energy company’s cash flow this year and a positive 2012 outlook provided an opportunity to overhaul its balance sheet. The repurchasing agreement is part of a 12-month effort in which the company has managed to reduce its debt by 50 percent, about $70 million, without diluting shareholders’ value, Chrisholm added...

The most popular daily news web articles on the Houston Business Journal’s website in 2011 spanned a variety of topics and industries, including energy, real estate and technology. Taking a glance at the stories that received the most web hits this past year, it is clear that Houston’s energy industry led the way past the recession, with the big moves by established businesses — including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Halliburton Co. — and the continued development of shale plays. Readers were also interested in keeping up with the construction of the new Houston Dynamo downtown stadium...

Texas has the strongest retail sector in the nation, and it is one of the few states to currently have more retail jobs than it did before the recession. The Lone Star state had more than 30,000 jobs in November than in November 2006, according to an analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data by The Business Journals’ On Numbers. Texas recorded about 1.2 million retail jobs last month. Only five other states saw an increase in retail jobs since 2006, including Oklahoma and North Dakota, which gained the second and third most jobs in the nation, respectively...

The Texas Hospital Association on Wednesday appointed Margaret Van Bree, CEO of St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston, to its 2012 board of trustees. A total of eight new trustees from hospitals across Texas were elected to the board, and they will begin their three-year terms on Jan. 1. Tim Lancaster, president and CEO of Hendrick Health System in Abilene, moved up from chairman-elect to take the role of chairman of the board. George Hernandez Jr., president and CEO of University Health System in San Antonio, was elected chairman-elect, while William Webster CEO of Medical Center Health System in Odessa, becomes immediate past chairman...

Cobalt International Energy Inc. (NYSE: CIE) insiders sold off some 377,000 shares this month worth more than $5.6 million. The trades were conducted by two insiders in five transactions on Dec. 21, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The biggest chunk was sold by James Farnsworth, chief exploration officer of the Houston oil exploration and production company. He sold 313,100 shares at $14.92, worth about $4.6 million. On the same date, Farnsworth sold another 6,900 shares at $15...

KBR Inc. said on Wednesday that Tecnimont S.p.A awarded it a contract for the license and basic engineering design of a new ammonia plant in Egypt. Egyptian-based Chemical Industries Holding Co.–KIMA will build the new plant in Aswan, Egypt, and KBR will provide a license for its ammonia technology and engineering services to the plant. Terms of the contract were not disclosed. According to a statement from KBR, the plant is on a “fast-track” building plan, and is designed to support Egypt’s modern fertilizer complexes...