South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. has a chance of coming up with its third North American plant in Mexico. It is the largest automaker with operations in Orange County. Santa Monica auto Web site Edmunds.com Inc. reported that there is a great probability of the Mexican gulf state of Veracruz being the site for the new plant. There is a chance of incorporating 150,000 additional vehicles to the automaker’s North American output, bringing it closer to Japan’s strength in the market of North America.

The automotive site reported that the negotiation process between officials from Promexico, a government agency promoting exports and foreign investments and Hyundai are in progress. The new plant is expected to produce Kia Motors America Inc.’s Rio and the new compact Hyundai Accent in the year 2013. By the year 2013, the overall expected estimate of the Mexican plant in addition to the existing Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Ala., and Kia’s plant in West Point, GA, altogether would be more than 800,000 vehicles.

Kia’s Georgia plant moved forward with its first car rolling out this week and is expected to produce 350,000 vehicles every year. The list includes the year 2011 Kia Sorento, Kia Forte along with the year 2013 sports utility vehicle, Hyundai Santa Fe. Kia has employed 2,500 people and invested an amount of about $1 billion in this plant.

Hyundai saw a profit of 49% by selling 31,005 cars last month in comparison to 20,820 vehicles that were sold at the same time last year. Based on the reports, the automaker is experiencing a sales growth of 4% and has sold 373,222 vehicles in comparison to the 358,484 vehicles sold a year ago.

El Pollo Loco Inc., which is a Costa Mesa-based Mexican fast food chain operator, posted a third-quarter loss and also a fall in revenue. According to the Chief Executive Stephen Carley, it happened because the promotions failed to deliver effective results in their most challenging quarter till date.

Based on the reported results for the debt holder, the privately held company lost $5 million in the quarter in comparison to a loss of $48,000 reported a year ago. The revenue of the company was reported down by 8.5% to $68.5 million and the sales at restaurants open for one year showed a decline of 10%. The Mexican fast food chain operator, El Pollo Loco Inc., faced a phase of poor economy and high unemployment which resulted in fewer customers and less spending by those who did visit.

Despite the promotions including football-themed Buffaloco wings and an ongoing “chicken war” with KFC, part of Louisville, Ky.-based Yum Brands Inc El Pollo Loco Inc. faced lower results. The Chief Executive Stephen Carley mentioned that even though they had tried to initiate more number of customers by including promotions, yet they failed to bring in the desired results.

The median home prices of Orange County saw their sixth month of continuous monthly rise, even though sales declined amongst a dwindling supply of homes. Canada’s Macdonald Detwiller unit, San Diego-based MDA DataQuick has verified that there has been an increase from September in the median prices by 1.7% or $7,500 with the new median price being $436,500. Since summer 2008, the prices are at their highest levels, registering a 4% increase.

MDA DataQuick has analyzed that in October, sales were down 1% from September whilst on the annual scale, sales dwindled by 1.2% figuring at 2,800. Southern California has also experienced a 6.7% drop from a year earlier. From September to October, the median prices have increased by $5,000 settling down at $280,000. San Diego, which posted a 0.5% increase and OC were the only two Southland counties which saw an annual increase in median sale prices.

The federally insured loans accounted for 26% of the deals in October in OC making the Southland County with the lowest number of deals completed using the FHA loans. October saw an increase of 2.8% from last year in Southland County.

Foreclosure sales which occurred at some point in the prior year were down from a high of 57% in February. They have remained flat from a month earlier. They made up 41% of all sales in Southland County last month.

Pacific Sunwear is an Anaheim-based company that makes clothes inspired from surfing. On Monday, the company saw a decline in its share prices as a response to the third quarter loss reported by the company. The loss reported was three times to what the analysts on Wall Street had thought of. The share price came down by 20% and closed at a market value of $330 million.

For the coming quarter, Pacific has set the loss at around $17.9 million to $22.4 million, whereas the analysts were hoping for a loss of around $7 million only. The reason for this outlook has been attributed to the fact that the sales of clothes for both men and women saw a “precipitous decline” in the last three weeks only. The same-store sales of the company are expected to be reduced by 20% from the previous year this time. On October 31, the company issued this outlook along with its third quarter results.

The analysts were hoping for a loss of $12.8 million but the company showed a loss of approximately $10.9 million. The sales were also a bit ahead of the analyst’s expectations of $260 million to $268.3 million. Gary Schoenfeld, who has joined Pacific as the Chief Executive at the beginning of the year only, is making his best attempts to improve the stores and is also shifting the focus to brand clothing’s of stores like Quicksilver Inc. and Volcom Inc.

TTM Technologies Inc., which is a Santa Ana-based contract manufacturer, saw a substantial rise in the share prices of the company on Monday. The hike came in response to the agreement made by the company to buy the $521 million business of Hong Kong’s Meadville Holdings Ltd. The Hong Kong-based company is into making printed circuit boards. The deal is supposed to be finalized in the first quarter and would be done in cash and stock.

In these kinds of acquisitions generally, the stock of the buyer company falls down but this is not the case with TTM Technologies. The market value rose by 8% to $525 million in after hour trading in New York. TTM had issued a statement that the sales would double once the deal gets closed. That is why the investors have sent the shares up.

In the year 2008, the sales of the company were about $600 million. Since June 2008 to June 2009, the revenue of the printed circuit board manufacturing company reached around $640 million. The Chief Executive of TTM Technologies, Kent Alder has said that the deal would prove to be beneficial for both the companies and would bring them good market value as well. Also, the client base will widen and that would bring in great market exposure to both the companies.

On Friday, Irvine-based Microsemi Corp.’s shares continued to rise after the stock was upgraded by an analyst. The stock rose 9% higher to a market value of $1.3 billion in the early afternoon trading in New York. The stock was updated from hold rating to “buy” rating by an analyst of Needham & Co. This all is due to the enthusiastic outlook offered by the company for the current quarter. The outlook offered more of a hike than the analysts on Wall Street had expected.

On sales of around $111 million to $114 million, profits are expected at about $20 million to $21 million for the current quarter. The analysts have set the profit at $20 million on sales of approximately $112 million. Microsemi’s amazing third quarter results have boosted the spirits of the company as they were way ahead of the expectations of the analysts.

The analysts had been expecting sales of $109 million, whereas the company reported profits of $19 million on sales of $110 million. Though it was 19% lower than the previous year, still it beat the analyst’s expectations. Almost all the analysts praised Microsemi for its outstanding performance and growth.

On Wednesday, the real estate and brokerage firm Grubb & Ellis Co. announced a small loss in the third-quarter. The loss was a result of the measures used by the company to cut down costs and write-downs in the real estate prices. A net loss of $21.4 million was reported by Grubb, which was lower in comparison with the previous year’s loss of $56.3 million. The analysts had not announced any specific amount for the net loss.

The administrative expenses saw a 36% downfall at $22.5 million from the previous year and the write-downs came down to $2.4 million from last year’s $35 million. A decline in revenue of around 11% was also seen, though the revenue for the real estate brokerage and consulting was up by 6% from the second-quarter. Executive vice president and chief financial officer, Richard W. Pehlke said that the investments made in the first half of the year are actually paying off now at this time of the year.

This is the worst downturn faced by the real estate firm till date. In October only, the company paid off its 2 credit lines with the help of $900 million from institutional investors.

On Wednesday, Chief Executive of Edwards Lifesciences Corp., Michael Mussallem said that the revenue of the company is expected to grow beyond 10% by the year 2010. The Irvine-based company deals in making heart valves. At the Reuters Health Summit in New York, Mussallem told all the people present in the Summit that “We are tracking above the 10% rate … and would expect that to continue. I do not think Wall Street will be disappointed.”

Wall Street is backing this fully and this outlook presented by Edwards Lifesciences Corp. had topped Wall Street’s expectations. Analysts on Wall Street are expecting that the company will report revenue of approximately $1.42 billion in the coming year. This would mark an 8% hike in comparison with the current year as the revenue for the present year has been projected at $1.31 billion.

Earlier the company had announced that the revenue for the current year would come in at around $1.30 billion to $1.35 billion for the year 2009. Mussallem said that in the year 2010, the heart valves, heart surgery devices and critical-care products would be in great demand and this would increase the sales and help in generating higher revenue.

Alliance Health Care Services, which is a Newport Beach-based company, is planning to rework on its finances. On Thursday, it has announced a proposal to issue a sum of $200 million in debt for refinancing purposes. The Newport Beach-based company basically runs medical imaging and cancer treatment centers.

Alliance is also planning to start a new credit deal along with a bunch of its lenders. The deal is expected to finalize a term loan of $450 million and a credit line of around $120 million. It will help the company in refinancing its finances. The chief financial officer of Alliance, Howard Aihara, said that Alliance also has an existing term loan of $350 million. The term loan is due to be paid in the year 2011.

The revenue from the debt and term loan would be used for paying out another outstanding debt of $300 million by Alliance. The $300 million debt is due to be paid in the year 2012.

Michael Mussallem, Chief Executive of the Irvine based heart valve making company Edwards Lifesciences Corp. has said that the firm is expecting a revenue growth of 10% in the year 2010.

Mussallem told the attendees at Reuters Health Summit in New York that, “Presently, we are tracking a growth rate above 10% and expect that it will continue to remain the same. We are hoping that Wall Street will not be disappointed with our performance”.

It is also true that the forecast is topping Wall Street’s view.

Analysts are expecting the revenue of Edwards to rise at $1.42 billion in the year 2010 that will be 8% up from a $1.31 billion revenue projection for the current year.

Earlier Edwards Lifesciences Corp. also said that it is expecting a full-year 2009 revenue between $1.30 billion to $1.35 billion.

Mussallem also said that the increasing demand for the company’s heart valves, critical-care products and heart surgery devices will increase the sales in the year 2010.