From Newport Beach : Far West Financial Moves Its Base to Century City

Far West Financial, the Newport Beach holding company for Far West Savings & Loan, moved its headquarters Friday to the Century City offices of its new president, Fred Kayne.

A staff of about 20 employees, some of whom also hold positions with the S&L;, have been moving into the refurbished offices for the last few weeks, said Robert Suryn, the S&L;’s senior vice president for finance. Their address officially changed Friday.

The headquarters for Far West Savings will remain in Newport Beach, Suryn said.

“The move is basically to get Far West Financial more into the financial hub of Southern California,” he said. “A lot of investment people are there--most of the big brokerages are there--so more of our asset managers will be headquartered there.”

The company and its S&L; unit have a large portfolio of high-yield bonds, also known as junk bonds, and the major player in the junk bond market, he said, is the Drexel Burnham Lambert brokerage, which is near the company’s new headquarters.

The move had been expected after Kayne, a longtime investment banker, was named president and chief executive officer of the company in February. He took over positions vacated by William Belzberg, who remains as chairman of the company and the S&L.;

Kayne’s company, Fortune Financial, is in a Century City high-rise, and it sublet its offices and surrounding offices to Far West Financial.

Belzberg, one of three Canadian brothers who together own about 53% of the company, has long maintained offices in Beverly Hills. He hired Kayne so he could step away from the day-to-day operations and spend more time on other interests that he and his brothers, Hyman and Samuel, are involved in.