FCA Delays Reporting Its 1984 Results : Review of Problem Loans Taking Longer Than Anticipated

Financial Corp. of America said Thursday that it has delayed announcement of its 1984 financial results because an internal review of problem loans is taking longer than anticipated.

FCA said it intends to announce the results by the end of March, just in time to meet the reporting requirement set by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Previously, Irvine-based FCA said its results would be available in late February.

The results are being eagerly awaited on Wall Street, where investors want to know the true extent of the company’s troubled loans that resulted from years of rapid growth. Investors Thursday drove down the price of FCA’s stock 62.5 cents a share to $8.25 on a volume of 488,700 shares.

In explaining the delay, Chairman William J. Popejoy said that FCA underestimated the time that it would take to review the quality of the loan portfolio. FCA is the holding company of Stockton-based American Savings & Loan Assn., the nation’s largest S&L.;

Task Force Review

“The entire process has been a larger investment of time than originally foreseen, but we are committed to clearing the decks so we can enter 1985 with a clean slate,” Popejoy said in a statement. He was not available for further comment.

The loan review is being done by a task force established last October that includes real estate specialists from inside and outside the company. Popejoy said the task force is “closely reviewing and evaluating about 2,450 items,” including construction loans, real estate investments and company-owned properties.

In an interview with The Times in late January, Popejoy suggested that FCA would lose a minimum of $185 million in 1984 because of expected record-setting losses in the fourth quarter. He said the fourth-quarter loss would stem from writing down overvalued assets and a sharp increase in the $90.5-million reserve for loan losses.

American Savings narrowly escaped a government takeover last summer during a massive outflow of deposits.