Citadel Says It’s Lined Up Investors for Fidelity S&L; : Banking: Investors would pay $108 million for stake in the thrift.
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Citadel Holding Corp. said Monday that it has lined up several investors to buy a combined 80% ownership of its Fidelity Federal Bank subsidiary in order to give the thrift a badly needed cash infusion.
Fidelity Federal would receive $108 million from the investors, whom a spokesman declined to identify until the deal is completed. The deal is scheduled to close Thursday.
The equity sale is part of a previously announced restructuring of the Glendale-based thrift, which Citadel is, in effect, spinning off to raise cash that can help Fidelity Federal stay afloat.
Fidelity Federal has been battered in recent years by bad real estate loans and was under pressure from federal regulators to quickly raise cash. The thrift lost $67 million in 1993.
The company’s restructuring also calls for Fidelity Federal to sell nine of its 42 branch offices and to dispose of $465 million of its problem assets in a so-called bulk sale. Citadel said it has reached agreements with unidentified investors for those transactions.
Citadel itself plans to buy four properties in the bulk sale for about $20 million and to become a real estate management company after Fidelity Federal is spun off, said Richard M. Greenwood, Fidelity Federal’s chief executive.
If the restructuring closes Thursday as planned, Citadel will report a second-quarter loss of about $92 million, which would include a $57-million write-off related to the assets being shed in the bulk sale. If the sale falls through, Citadel said, its second-quarter loss will be about $32 million.
Citadel’s common stock gained 12.5 cents to $5.875 a share in American Stock Exchange trading Monday.
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