BANKING/FINANCE

Investors and Liberty Thrifts Included in Acquisition by Fremont General

Two Orange County thrift and loans will become part of the large Fremont General Corp. in Santa Monica under a definitive agreement reached last month.

A spokesman for Fremont said Tomar Financial Corp. in Fresno, the parent company of Investors Thrift & Loan and Liberty Thrift & Loan, has agreed to be acquired by Fremont for an unspecified price between $5 million and $10 million. Both thrifts are based in Orange.

The sale is subject to approval from thrift regulators--the state Department of Corporations and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The thrifts had combined assets of $180 million at the end of June. Their earnings for the first six months were not disclosed, but regulatory figures show that they posted combined net income of $328,000 last year, contrasted with $1.1 million in earnings in 1987. The thrifts have a total of 14 branches throughout California, mostly in rural areas.

Fremont is one of the state’s larger workers’ compensation insurers and operates companies involved in commercial finance, commercial mortgage banking and life insurance. One of its subsidiaries, Commercial Bankers Life Insurance Co., is based in Orange County.

Thrift and loans are a cross between banks and finance companies and generally are lenders of last resort to borrowers with bad credit or no credit.