Finance & Capital Management

Las Vegas – Privately held real estate company Vestar has completed a buyout of The District at Green Valley Ranch, in Henderson, Nevada. Vestar paid $120 million to its joint venture partner Rockwood Capital to take full ownership of the 37-acre, 384,107-sq.-ft. landmark retail property minutes from Las Vegas.

Hangzhou, China - Alibaba.com is moving to put concerns about the reliability of its suppliers to rest. The global e-commerce platform is upgrading its trade assurance program to give small-to-mid-sized businesses peace of mind when buying from overseas suppliers.

Bon-Ton Stores has hired a 30-year veteran of the retail industry as its chief operating officer.

The Bon-Ton Stores Inc. has named William Tracy to the position of COO, effective July 27. Tracy will have responsibility for stores, information systems, supply chain, distribution & logistics, omnichannel strategy, real estate, and HR.

San Jose, Calif. – PayPal Inc.’s first day of trading as an independent public company on the Nasdaq stock exchange was a good one. The digital payment platform closed at a price of $40.47 on Monday, July 20, up 5% from the opening price of $38.39.

In 2014, when it operated as a division of eBay Inc., PayPal processed $235 billion in total payment volume and generated more than $8 billion in revenues. The company serves more than 169 million active customer accounts in 203 markets around the world.

Plymouth Minn. – Tile Shop Holdings Inc. had a successful second quarter of fiscal 2015, meeting Wall Street expectations for profit and beating them for revenue. Net income rose 20% to $4.8 million from $4 million the same period a year earlier, with higher pretax income compensation for increased expenses related to the opening of 12 new stores.

Washington, D.C. - Following up on last month’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the National Retail Federation (NRF) and other business groups today urged Congress to move quickly on reforms to the five-year-old healthcare law.

“We write to urge Congress to put priority attention toward easing the cost and compliance burdens associated with the Affordable Care Act,” the groups said in a letter to members of the House and Senate.

San Francisco - Instacart  is expanding a program that lets some contract workers become part-time employees. The online grocery delivery service is now offering its contractor in-store shoppers in Houston and Austin, Texas, the option of applying for new employee roles with expanded responsibilities.

Hoboken, N.J. – The countdown is on for the latest competitor to Amazon.com to take off. Jet.com, which hopes to compete with the Amazon Prime membership service using “profit-free” pricing, has an online clock on its homepage counting down to launch at 6 a.m. ET on Tuesday, July 21.