Business

A number of high-profile employee benefits administrators were acquired in 2021, significantly changing the industry’s landscape in Maryland for 2022. Confidio, PSA Insurance & Financial Services and Employee One Benefit Solutions LLC were all purchased by out-of-state firms last year, in line with a nationwide trend. The industry saw significantly more mergers and acquisitions in 2021 compared to 2020, according to a report from Otis Partners, a Chicago investment bank specializing in the insurance industry.

The master plan for National Harbor includes houses, hotels, restaurants, an outlet mall and resorts that have largely come to fruition since it opened 14 years ago in the middle of a recession. The Metro station in that blueprint has taken a divergent path. Developers included the station at a time when the transit agency was on stronger footing, hoping a rail connection to the Washington region would boost the fledgling waterfront community. National Harbor has shown it can grow without Metro, but its continued desire for a station will probably be settled during a process beginning in weeks.

The James Beard Awards are back — and three Baltimore chefs and a Chinese restaurant have been named semifinalists. Canton’s NiHao was named in the category of “best new restaurant,” while one of its founders, Peter Chang, was a semifinalist in the Outstanding Chef category for his work at his eponymous restaurants in Maryland and Virginia. A new branch of Peter Chang is set to open in Columbia this fall.

A fast-growing Illinois physical therapy company closed its deal to buy Towson’s Pivot Health Solutions — a physical and occupational therapy chain with more than 250 locations — for an undisclosed sum. Athletico Physical Therapy disclosed it had finalized the deal, first announced in December, to acquire Pivot on Wednesday. The combined company will have nearly 8,000 employees and more than 900 locations across 25 states and Washington, D.C.

Under Armour Inc. is expecting supply chain challenges to drag down its results for the next few months, but CEO Patrik Frisk is confident that the company can successfully navigate this “short-term speed bump” and finish the year strong. The Baltimore sportswear maker reported financial results for the fourth quarter and all of 2021 on Friday morning. Despite beating Wall Street expectations for both profit and sales, Under Armour’s stock dropped almost 10% in mid-morning trading after the company warned that its revenue will likely take a 10 percentage point hit in the current quarter due to supply chain constraints caused by the ongoing pandemic.