Loan Punster Rides Again
George P. Rutland, president and chief executive of California Federal Savings & Loan’s parent company, coined a memorable phrase in a recent discussion of why some big banks are so reluctant to make a realistic assessment of their troubled loans to Third World countries.
Explained Rutland: “A rolling loan gathers no loss.”
Ralphs Messy Suitors
Byron Allumbaugh, chairman of Ralphs Grocery, wasn’t exactly thrilled with the task of showing off his grocery chain to potential bidders when the Compton-based chain was put up for sale. After all, he and other top managers want to buy the chain themselves when the dust settles from last week’s purchase of parent Federated Department Stores by Campeau Corp.
Recalling a weekend in February when he was told to open Ralphs’ books to potential bidders, Allumbaugh said: “Over that weekend, we showed our wares and bared our souls, and some of the companies we talked to acted like pigs in a sty that couldn’t get enough slops, rolling around in their own mess. We’ll remember that.”
Speaking to an industry group and quoted in Supermarket News, a trade magazine, Allumbaugh stressed his company’s determination to be independent. Ralphs, he said, will never allow “others who are out to destroy us to take down our big red ovals and replace them with plastic signs.”
Campaigning on the Crash
When the stock market crashed in October, some predicted that it might become one of the top issues in this year’s elections. But in the April 12 election for the Arcadia City Council?
Candidate Johanna A. M. Hofer, whose occupation is listed as concerned citizen and environmentalist, is running for one of two seats on the five-member council. In her sample ballot statement, Hofer says her experience as the daughter of Great Depression survivors and “my own survival in the recent stock market crash fortifies me and gives me the insight for the days and years ahead.”
Can Both S&Ls; Be No. 1?
Who runs the nation’s best savings and loan? We do, says World Savings in Oakland. We do, says Columbia Savings in Beverly Hills.
In its latest advertising, World Savings quotes several financial periodicals, including one conspicuous comment from Nelson’s Research Monthly that rated World as “the (thrift) industry’s best-managed company.”
Despite a $34.8-million fourth-quarter loss, Columbia Savings in Beverly Hills is sticking to its promotions indicating that, based on the latest annual Forbes magazine survey, it’s the best managed.
So what’s the deal on the surveys that gives these well-regarded firms such bragging rights?
The head of World Savings, Herb Sandler, says he’d never even heard of the Nelson’s survey until recently “when I saw a small item in the Oakland Tribune.” As for Columbia, marketing director Wendell Ruppe says the latest Forbes’ survey didn’t cover what happened in the final three months of 1987.
Shakes Quickly Forgotten
How quickly they forget. Six months ago, when Southern California still was rattling from the big Oct. 1 earthquake, headhunters reported that out-of-town executives were not too thrilled with the idea of moving to Los Angeles.
No, as spring dawns with California still attached to the North American continent, recruiters say fall’s quakes are a distant memory. “As we’re talking to people out of town and recruiting for senior-level executive positions, the issue of earthquakes in California does not come up,” said Barry A. Deutsch, manager of the Los Angeles office of Adler, Remillard Associates. “It’s the old ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ ”
The Other Guy Did It
A rose by any other name does not smell as sweet to the folks up at First Republic Bancorp in San Francisco.
The bank has no connection with troubled First RepublicBank Corp. in Dallas, which last month was loaned $1 billion as part of a massive federal bailout. But that doesn’t help some confused depositors in the much smaller and completely unrelated California institution. Each new headline from Texas, the bank says, brings a new round of worried telephone calls in San Francisco.
