ICA Stock Value Is Big Question After Seizure : S&Ls;: Delisting by the NYSE, bankruptcy and more shareholder lawsuits could be in the offing.

The seizure of financially troubled Imperial Savings Assn. by federal regulators signaled the start of hard times for Imperial Corp. of America, the thrift’s publicly traded parent company.

Imperial, one of 11 S&Ls; seized nationwide Friday, was the largest financial institution ever to fail in San Diego County.

Federal regulators are now operating Imperial Savings’ 88 branch offices throughout the state. With the thrift, by far ICA’s largest asset, now under federal control, “the question is what value there is left in ICA,” said Irving Katz, director of research for Thomas Green/San Diego Securities. “The stock seems certain to be delisted” by the New York Stock Exchange.

The stock market Monday provided a partial answer to the question of ICA’s value: The stock that has traded for months at $.50 or less closed down $.375 at $.1875.

“Stockholders might want to paper their walls with the stock certificates,” Katz said.

But the question of ICA’s value is not a moot point, because the stock could continue to trade on an over-the-counter basis, Katz said. However, “at this point, the commission you’d be charged to sell the stock is more than you’d be able to get for it,” Katz said.

The government takeover of Imperial Savings could force ICA to file for bankruptcy, as other S&L; holding companies have after federal regulators seized their S&L; assets.

The failure seems likely to generate additional shareholder lawsuits against the holding company’s board of directors, observers said. One shareholder complained Friday that ICA’s board members “were supposed to be a group of outsiders with fiduciary responsibility . . . (but) they turned out to be pretty much a bunch of dumbos.”

It was uncertain Monday what Imperial’s failure means for Caywood-Christian Capital Management, an ICA subsidiary that managed Imperial’s junk bond portfolio as well as portfolios owned by other companies. ICA owns a 49% stake in the La Jolla-based investment firm.

Imperial’s failure “really has no bearing on the people we’re doing business with,” Caywood-Christian spokesman Mike McNelley said. “We’ve been doing business all day today, and (the failure) will have no effect on our daily operation.”

The seizure also raised questions about the eventual fate of Imperial Savings, which is being operated by the federal Resolution Trust Corp., which disposes of failed S&Ls; and banks. While federal regulators hope to sell all or part of the S&L; business, “there are already a number of institutions up for sale, and you’re not seeing a long line of investors lining up to buy them,” said Joseph Jolson, an S&L; industry analyst with Montgomery Securities in San Francisco.

“Imperial, from a retail standpoint, has some good branches, they’re decent in San Diego and OK in Los Angeles and San Francisco,” Jolson said. “They’re an operation that some people should be interested in.”

But Jolson and other analysts questioned when Resolution Trust would actually sell all or part of Imperial. “There are interested buyers for Gibraltar (Savings & Loan, which failed last year), but it hasn’t been sold because RTC can’t get its act together,” Jolson said.

Imperial Savings’ value will “tend to deteriorate the longer it takes to make a sale,” he said. “That means the (government) will get a lesser price, and that ultimately increases the price to the taxpayers.”

Despite its troubled junk bond and consumer loan portfolios, Jolson said, Imperial “is not going to be one of the ‘black hole’ kinds of situations,” such as the failed S&Ls; and banks in Texas that will cost billions of dollars to dispose of.