Corporate report

Enviro-Serv signs deal for new Pestmaster franchise
Enviro-Serv Inc. reached a franchise agreement with Pestmaster Services for the territorial rights to Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. Pestmaster Services is a national pest control franchisor with 30 locations and is one of the bigger recipients of government contracts for pest control services.

The new franchise will be called Pestmaster Tampa. It will assume a $307,000, five-year existing contract with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for work in Tampa Bay.
The franchise agreement is scheduled for completion by July 15.

Enviro-Serv says it is still in discussions with Pestmaster Services to also bring the company's X-Terminates subsidiary under the Pestmaster umbrella.

Enviro-Serv's companies provide a wide range of property maintenance services primarily in warm climate states. Its services include pest control, lawn and landscaping care, pool maintenance and air conditioning/refrigeration installation and repairs.

Trinity's Nicopure Labs wins French civil case
Nicopure Labs LLC, the Trinity-based parent company of the e-liquid manufacturer and electronic cigarette supplier Halo Cigs, won a trademark infringement lawsuit against French e-liquid manufacturer V.F.P. France.

The French Tribunal of Paris (Tribunal de Grande Instance) found V.F.P infringed upon 12 Nicopure trademarks. Nicopure Labs had accused the company of registering brand names with the National Institute of Industrial Property for products Nicopure has been selling in France since 2010.

The French court ruled V.F.P. must transfer ownership of those trademarks to Nicopure Labs and ordered the company to pay Nicopure Labs $43,619 (40,000 EUR) in damages and $6,543 (6,000 EUR) in plaintiff's court costs.

V.F.P. has appealed the decision.

Founded in New Jersey in 2009, Nicopure Labs currently sells e-cigarettes and e-liquids in 91 countries.

St. Pete Duke division approved for Orlando solar plant
Duke Energy Florida in St. Petersburg received approval to build and operate a 5-megawatt solar facility to serve the Reedy Creek Improvement District near Orlando.

The Reedy Creek Improvement District Board of Supervisors voted to accept a 15-year agreement with Duke Energy Florida Solar Solutions LLC, a subsidiary of Duke Energy Florida, to purchase solar energy from the facility.

The facility will occupy about 20 acres near World Drive and Epcot Center Drive at Walt Disney World Resort.

Construction is expected to begin in mid-summer with the facility scheduled to be in service by the end of the year. In keeping with its location, the facility's 48,000 solar panels will be arranged in a Disney-inspired design.

Duke Energy Florida announced earlier this year that it plans to build facilities generating up to 500 megawatts of energy from solar by 2024.

CNLBank parent selling to Valley National
Valley National Bancorp (symbol: VLY; recent price: $9.67) agreed to acquire CNLBancshares Inc. (symbol: CNLB; recent price: $4.25) for about $207 million in stock. Both companies' boards of directors have approved the merger.

CNLBancshares operates Orlando-based CNLBank, a bank with $1.4 billion in assets and $1.1 billion in deposits. It has 16 branches, including locations in Bonita Springs, Sarasota, Naples and Estero.

Under the agreement, CNLBancshares shareholders will receive 0.75 shares of Valley National Bancorp common stock for each share of CNLBancshares common stock.

The combined company will have about $20.4 billion in assets, $14.6 billion in loans, $15.3 billion in deposits and 240 branches covering New Jersey, New York and Florida.

The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter, but still requires regulatory and CNLBancshares shareholder approval.

WellCare Health Plan approved for Florida Healthy Kids
Tampa-based WellCare Health Plans Inc. (symbol: WCG; recent price: $83.10) announced its Staywell Health Plan has been approved by the Florida Healthy Kids Corp. to continue providing managed care services for children 5-18 years old as part of the Florida Healthy Kids program. The firm expects to sign a two-year contract on Oct. 1.

Staywell Health Plan will be available to children in the program who live in the Pensacola, Tallahassee, Gainesville, Jacksonville, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers and Miami metropolitan areas. Florida Healthy Kids is a health care program open to children whose families do not qualify for Medicaid.

Ranking lists HomeBanc a “Best Place to Work for Millennials”
Tampa-based HomeBanc NA was named one of the Best Places to Work for millennial employees in America by The Center for Generational Kinetics and Best Companies Group. More than 3,000 companies were considered for the ranking, and 75 companies made the list.

The rating focuses on finding companies that excel at recruiting, developing and retaining top millennial performers. Best Companies Group analyzed policy and benefit offerings from employer questionnaires, as well as employee engagement data from more than 500,000 employee surveys conducted in the last 12 months.

HomeBanc has 14 offices.

Kitson & Partners CEO named Florida Chamber regional chairman
Syd Kitson, chairman and CEO of Kitson & Partners, was chosen to serve for a year as chairman of the Florida Chamber's Southwest Florida Regional Board.

Steve Knopik, president and CEO of Bealls Inc. and chairman of the Florida Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, appointed Kitson.

“Syd Kitson has a long history of being a team player and has proven leadership skills, which is vital when keeping Florida competitive,” Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber, says in a press release.

The chamber has 12 regional chairs.