New Firm to Acquire Centurion

A financial holding company being formed in Fresno has signed a letter of intent to buy Centurion Savings & Loan Assn., a six-branch institution based in Sherman Oaks, for about $6.3 million in cash.

The buyer, Atlantic Pacific Financial Corp., is being established by the owners of Fresno-based Financial Savings & Loan Assn., including Financial Savings Chairman Donald J. Schafer. Closely held Atlantic Pacific plans to sell more shares to pay for the acquisition and would be the parent of both Financial Savings and Centurion, although the two S&Ls; are to retain separate identities.

Centurion President Martin P. Sanders, who is to continue in his position after the acquisition, said Centurion and Financial Savings make a good match. Centurion’s business is consumer-oriented, and it has 8,000 depositors at branches in upscale Northridge, Sherman Oaks, Century City and Santa Monica, as well as in the Westside Pavilion and the mid-Wilshire district.

Access to the Affluent

The main activities of Financial Savings, which has one branch and 400 to 500 depositors, are handling jumbo certificates of deposit and mortgage banking, said Vernon H. Crow, the S&L;’s executive vice president. He said Financial Savings hopes to benefit from Centurion’s access to many affluent consumers.

Centurion was founded in December, 1980. Financial Savings opened last June.

Sanders said the purchase price for Centurion will be $23.25 for each of the about 265,100 shares and 7,500 stock options outstanding. The stock has not been traded in several weeks, said John Schamp, vice president at the Westlake Village office of the brokerage Sutro & Co. But it was trading at about $14 before the merger announcement. Centurion had assets of $85 million and a net worth of $4 million as of March 31.