Business news in brief

Bryn Mawr Bank Corp. completed the purchase of the Hershey Trust Co.'s private wealth-management business, which has $1.1 billion in assets under management, the Bryn Mawr company said. The deal, announced in February without a price, was valued at $18.5 million. At closing, Bryn Mawr paid $8.5 million in cash and $6.5 million in stock. The remaining $3.55 million will be paid over the next 15 months, subject to certain conditions. - Harold Brubaker

Sabre Industries Inc., North Wales, cut the offering price range for its initial public offering of stock to between $10 and $11 a share from an earlier estimate of $12 to $14. The amount also was cut, to 6.75 million shares from 7 million. The IPO is planned for next week. Sabre, which provides products such as towers and poles for wireless communications and electric transmission, said it would use the proceeds to repay debt. It has not reported results for its fiscal year that ended April 30, but it estimated revenue of $275 million to $281 million and a profit of $2.6 million to $3.1 million. - Paul Schweizer

Philadelphia Gas Works announced a decrease in rates for the average customer of about 1.7 percent per month for June, July, and August. The rate cut - to $1.56 per 100 cubic feet - stems from a drop in the forecast cost of the natural gas PGW buys from its suppliers. The municipal utility serves 500,000 mostly residential customers in the city. - Paul Schweizer

The owner of Invictus Financial Group in Havertown was sentenced to 60 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $3.9 million for operating a real estate investment scheme that caused $6 million in losses to lenders, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia said. Kirk H. Kirby, of Capital Heights, Md., pretended to be a licensed mortgage broker and ran what the government said was similar to a Ponzi scheme in 2006 and 2007. An accomplice, Sholanda Y. Johnson, of Philadelphia, was sentenced to 30 months and ordered to pay back $2.4 million. They obtained loans for properties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and other states using bogus loan documents, U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger said. Kirby and Johnson each pleaded guilty to wire fraud. - Paul Schweizer

New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance said in a statement that the state had joined a 10-state, $3 million settlement with Mortgage Access Corp., also trading as Weichert Financial Services, Morris Plains. The settlement resolves compliance issues found by the states last year, the statement said. It added that MAC accelerated its corrective actions once regulators alerted it to the violations. - Inquirer staff

Italian automaker Fiat SpA said it would buy the Treasury's remaining stake in Chrysler Group L.L.C., freeing the automaker of U.S. government ownership. Fiat notified the U.S. Treasury Department that it would exercise an option to buy the government's 6 percent stake. Fiat is moving quickly to take a controlling stake in Chrysler, which it has run since the company left bankruptcy protection in June 2009. - AP

The number of people who signed contracts to buy homes fell sharply in April, hitting its lowest point since fall. The National Association of Realtors said its index of sales agreements for previously occupied homes sank 11.6 percent last month to a reading of 81.9. A reading of 100 would be considered healthy. - AP

Greece's main opposition conservative party rejected a government plea for cross-party agreement on new austerity measures, drawing swift criticism from the European Union. Conservative leader Antonis Samaras said he could not endorse a program that would "flatten the Greek economy and destroy Greek society." - AP