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Group to Buy Orange County S&L;, Move It to Sherman Oaks

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A group of Sherman Oaks investors Monday agreed to buy a small Newport Beach savings bank,open a branch on Ventura Boulevard, move the headquarters there and change its name to Sherman Oaks Savings Bank.

The investors, organized as Sherman Oaks Financial Corp., decided to buy Westmark Savings Bank when it seemed likely that their own application for an S&L; charter would be denied by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, said Benjamin Loveless, president of Sherman Oaks Financial.

Knowledgeable sources put the purchase price at $3.5 million in cash. Before the proposed acquisition, which requires federal and state approval, Westmark had total assets of $35.8 million and a regulatory net worth (assets minus liabilities) of $2.1 million, according to June 30 figures, the latest available, from the FHLBB.

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The sources said the premium paid over regulatory net worth should raise the bank’s net worth to the same $3.5 million by adding more than $1 million in “good will” to its books.

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