Corporate report

Xcelience expands, approved for incentives for 100 new jobs
Tampa-based Xcelience has announced plans to expand. The contract development and manufacturing firm to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries says it will expand its product development services and manufacturing operations in Tampa, creating 100 new jobs and retaining another 100 jobs. Xcelience expects to invest $9 million in the region as part of the expansion.

Xcelience plans to build a 6,000-square-foot building at its 5415 W. Laurel St. location. In addition, Xcelience will construct a new 71,000-square-foot headquarters at 4910 Savarese Circle, Tampa to support future company growth.

The company plans to add jobs working in pharmaceutical development, manufacturing, quality assurance and packaging.

In January, the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners and the Tampa City Council approved a combined local incentive package of $100,000. The firm also stands to receive about $500,000 from Florida's Qualified Target Industry program for creating 100 new jobs paying a minimum average wage of $56,000. In addition, the state of Florida will provide Xcelience with $135,000 in Quick Response Training program funds for the reimbursement of training costs for new employees and $585,000 in sales tax exemptions for the purchase of qualified manufacturing equipment as well as machinery and equipment used predominantly for research and development.

Odyssey Marine Exploration reaches financing agreement
Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. (symbol: OMEX; recent price: 76 cents) signed a financing agreement with Minera del Norte S.A. de c.v. (MINOSA), an owner and operator of mines and mineral rights. Under the agreement, MINOSA will extend $14.75 million in short-term debt to Odyssey. In addition, Penelope Mining LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of MINOSA, has agreed to invest up to $101 million over three years in convertible preferred stock of Odyssey.

As part of the stock purchase agreement, Odyssey stockholders will be asked to approve a 1-for-6 reverse stock split, which would break up Odyssey's board of directors into three classes, and the elect designees of MINOSA to a majority of the positions on the board.

Odyssey plans to solicit approval of the agreement from its stockholders within the next 90 days. Directors and officers of Odyssey, who hold about 5 million shares, have already agreed to vote in favor of the transaction.

American Health & Fitness Solutions Olympus app cracks iTunes' top 100
Naples-based American Health & Fitness Solutions LLC announced its Olympus application has been ranked among the top 100 Health & Fitness Apps in the iTunes App Store. The health app offers remote access to a personal trainer.

The firm charges $5.99 a month after a two-week free trial.

Bloomin' Brands promotes executive to head Bonefish Grill restaurants
Bloomin' Brands Inc. (symbol: BLMN; recent price: $23.05) has promoted Gregg Scarlett to executive vice president of Bloomin' Brands and president of Bonefish Grill. He will be responsible for leading the operations and development of Bonefish Grill restaurants nationwide.

Scarlett most recently served as the senior vice president of casual dining restaurant operations for Bloomin' Brands and was responsible for implementing best practices across the company's three casual dining restaurant brands.

Scarlett is replacing Stephen Judge, who will be leaving Bonefish Grill after a transition period to pursue other interests.

Cryo-Cell International pursing merger with Vegas firm
Cryo-Cell International Inc. (symbol: CCEL; recent price: $2.75) announced in a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it has taken a 9.6% ownership stake in Cord Blood America Inc. stock. The firm has also filed a lawsuit against the Las Vegas company to compel it to hold an annual meeting of shareholders to elect directors in a bid to have Cryo-Cell's slate of directors approved.

Cryo-Cell says if it is successful in its effort to elect directors to the board of Cord Blood America, it believes it could ultimately lead to a merger of Cord Blood America into Cryo-Cell.
The Oldsmar-based company is also fighting a proposal by Cord Blood America to increase the number of shares.

“We believe that the [Cord Blood America] shareholders have already suffered significant declines in the price of CBAI's common stock over the last several years due, in part, to the massive issuance of stock by the company,” David Portnoy, chairman and Co-CEO of Cryo-Cell. “As the largest reported shareholder in CBAI, Cryo-Cell currently intends to vote against the proposal to increase the number of authorized shares.”