Western Financial Plans Debt Offering

Western Financial Savings Bank of Orange said it will issue $75 million worth of debt once the Federal Home Loan Bank Board approves the offering. Standard & Poor’s recently recently assigned a BBB- rating to the offering and Moody’s Investors Service gave it a Ba1 rating.

Proceeds from the offering of subordinated capital debentures will be put into the savings bank’s capital base, raising its net worth to $170 million from $97.9 million, a bank spokesman said.

Final approval from the bank board should be within 30 days, he said.