Mercury Savings & Loan in Huntington Beach...

Mercury Savings & Loan in Huntington Beach has reached a tentative agreement to buy the loan-origination business of a Fresno savings institution for at least $1.5 million in cash. Mercury would acquire the five branch operations of Financial Savings & Loan for essentially the book value of the loans, according to Kenneth Robinson, Mercury’s executive vice president and controller. Mercury could end up paying FinSav more for the branches based on the future performance of the loans. FinSav’s loan operation is based in San Diego, and Robinson said Mercury has not yet decided how it would merge that operation into its own loan-origination division. At least a majority of the 100 FinSav employees would be retained, but Robinson said no decision has been made yet on how many would be needed. Mercury expects to close the deal by early July.