SAN DIEGO ANNUAL MEETINGS : Thygerson Predicts Profitability in ’86 for Imperial Corp.

SAN DIEGO — Any doubt that Kenneth J. Thygerson’s seven-month reign over Imperial Corp. of America has been anything less than a management blitzkrieg likely was put to rest at the company’s annual shareholder meeting Thursday.

The 40-year-old president and chief executive rapidly rattled off a month-by-month synopsis of his costcutting and balance sheet restructuring and predicted that Imperial--a multi-state savings and loan holding company with $8.2 billion in assets--would return to profitability in 1986.

Last year, the company lost $16.5 million following a series of financial downturns that included a $6.4-million loss on agreements to repurchase securities of bankrupt Bevil, Bresler & Schulman, $4.6 million in loan losses and $4.2 million in pre-tax charges to cover costs of several office closings and from severance payments to laid-off employees.

Imperial rebounded in the first quarter, however, and reported earnings of $6.9 million, up 47%.

Since he joined Imperial in September, Thygerson has surrounded himself with young, aggressive senior executives--four of whom were Thygerson’s colleagues at the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., where he was president and chief executive.

In the last six months, the new crew “did our own due diligence . . . and assessed the corporation and our own jobs,” Thygerson told about 75 people at the annual gathering.

Thygerson obligingly listed a couple of Imperial’s strengths--”fundamentally good” asset base, a strong retail bank franchise system. But then he candidly indexed several “weaknesses” that had left Imperial’s management short of the financial skills needed to operate profitably in a deregulated environment and left some of its staff with sinking morale.

“There was no concept of a management team,” he said.

Since then, Imperial has eliminated several unprofitable programs--such as its telemarketing sales and its acquisition, development and construction lending. And Imperial’s operating expenses have been pared substantially--18% lower in the first quarter ended March 31 than in the fourth quarter.

Imperial, parent of Imperial Savings & Loan, will fashion a “coordinated financial strategy,” Thygerson said. “We’ll be a major participant in the nationwide home mortgage loan market.”

Thygerson said he wants to “make sure that Imperial doesn’t go through in the next three years what Imperial went through in the last three years (when) there was a mismatch between asset base and liability base.”

The company’s net worth--or the excess of assets over liabilities--stands at 3.4%, above the 3% required by regulators, he said.

Thygerson may have convinced shareholders that he is in day-to-day control of Imperial, but it remains clear that long-term say-so rests with Chairman Victor N. Goulet, 45, the publicity-shy controlling shareholder of Tamco Holding Co., which indirectly owns 24.94% of Imperial.

Goulet and two other Tamco principals--Allan Tessler and Lyman C. Hamilton Jr., both of whom are also Imperial directors--have asked federal regulators for permission to convert Tamco into a savings and loan holding company by buying additional shares of Imperial stock.

The stock purchases would be in “unspecified amounts at an unspecified future time,” according to Imperial’s proxy statement.

Thygerson would not comment on Goulet’s plans.

Goulet showed up late at the annual meeting--after Thygerson had excused the chairman’s absence because he was off “negotiating” several business deals.

As soon as the meeting ended, however, Goulet scooted out--without mingling with shareholders or talking to reporters.