Imperial Corp. President, Chief Resigns
Kenneth Thygerson has agreed to step down as president and chief executive of the parent firm of Imperial Savings of California. He will be replaced temporarily by New York attorney and financier Allan R. Tessler, a director of Imperial Corp. of America, San Diego.
Thygerson, whose resignation is effective immediately, did not return telephone messages Monday, and Imperial declined to comment other than to say the resignation resulted from a “mutual agreement” between Thygerson and Imperial’s board.
But the 44-year-old chief executive was coming under increasing fire from federal regulators. Since joining Imperial in 1985 after heading up the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. for three years, Thygerson led Imperial into various non-traditional lending activities, including “junk bond” investments and wholesale car and mobile home loans.
The diversifications largely misfired. Problems with its consumer loan portfolio forced Imperial to set aside reserves of $109 million in the fourth quarter of last year, leading to a loss of $15.6 million in the quarter. Additional reserves set aside for bad loans earlier this year resulted in a slender first-quarter profit of $900,000.
At the insistence of regulators, Imperial in January suspended its dividend and said it would reduce assets in a bid to bolster capital as a percentage of assets. As of March 31, Imperial had shrunk its assets to $11.9 billion from $12.3 billion at the end of 1988.
Imperial said it expects to release on Wednesday a detailed restructuring plan to put the S&L; in compliance with new capital requirements expected to be included in the congressional S&L; bailout bill.
As recently as May, Thygerson continued to defend his management strategy, saying in an interview that, despite the setbacks, Imperial was still looking for “new, higher yield markets to enter.”
According to Imperial’s most recent proxy statement, Thygerson’s employment contract calls for him to be paid upon termination a lump sum of nearly three times his $400,000 salary under certain circumstances. Imperial spokesman Tim Larrick, however, declined to discuss specific terms of Thygerson’s severance agreement.
