Specialist Hired to Reshape Lincoln Quits S&L; : Hinz Says He’ll Help Investor Group Trying to Buy Irvine Firm From Parent
William D. Hinz, the man hired three months ago to restructure Lincoln Savings & Loan as a more traditional savings institution, said Thursday he has quit as chairman and chief executive officer to help an investor group negotiate the purchase of the Irvine-based S&L.;
Hinz said he and two or three investors have begun evaluating Lincoln’s assets in a bid to form an offer to buy the institution from its parent, American Continental Corp. in Phoenix.
The group may take three months to put a value on Lincoln’s assets, mainly its direct investments in hotels and real estate across the country, Hinz said. Only then would a formal offer be made and talks begin in earnest, he said.
Hinz, 49, will be succeeded by Robin S. Symes, 35, the officer Hinz had replaced. With Hinz’s appointment, Symes had been promoted to senior vice president with the holding company, a position he will keep.
With $5 billion in assets and $300 million in net worth, Lincoln is the 18th-largest S&L; in the state and the second-largest in the county.
Hinz’s resignation surprised some regulators, but a possible sale of Lincoln did not. At the time he was hired, American Continental executives hinted that the company may peddle the S&L.;
American Continental Chairman Charles H. Keating Jr. grew disenchanted with the industry as he engaged in long battles with regulators over the scope of the 1982 federal deregulation of financial services institutions.
Keating embraced deregulation and advocated the expanded and non-traditional investment powers--especially for direct investments in real estate properties and developments--that it gave to thrifts. His stance brought him and his institution into conflict with the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, which at the time was trying to curtail such investments through new regulations.
A bank board spokesman said Thursday that the board recently completed what had been an unusually long, two-year examination of Lincoln. A company spokesman said Lincoln was satisfied with the results, which will not be made public.
Keating has reportedly told other potential bidders for Lincoln that the S&L; is not for sale. An American Continental spokesman who did not want to be identified repeated Thursday that Lincoln is not for sale, but he acknowledged that Lincoln has allowed the Hinz group to evaluate nearly all the S&L;’s assets--as well as some American Continental assets--as part of the group’s due-diligence procedures that precede an offer.
The Hinz group is the only one to start the due-diligence examination, the spokesman said.
Hinz, a 25-year veteran of the S&L; industry and former executive vice president of Great American First Savings Bank in San Diego, said he had been working with an investors group that wanted to form a thrift before he joined Lincoln. He said he disclosed that to Keating before joining the firm, and the group continued its search for a thrift.
Though it is also looking at smaller thrifts in Colorado, Arizona and Washington, the group has focused its efforts on Lincoln.
“I went to Charley and asked him about it, and he said it was not for sale,” he said. “I said we’d still like to look at it and make an offer. He told me (that) he would sell it for the right price and that he’d consider our offer.”
But at that point, Hinz said, both men realized that Hinz had a conflict of interest. So on Feb. 25, he resigned from his posts at Lincoln. He became a consultant, though, to Keating and American Continental, as well as a consultant to the investor group.
