Wageman, Specialist in Troubled Thrifts, Will Head HomeFed

HomeFed Bank has hired Thomas J. Wageman as its new president and chief executive, replacing Robert Adelizzi, who was forced to resign by regulators after the troubled San Diego-based savings and loan reported huge first-quarter and 1990 losses.

Wageman, 57, has close ties to regulators and has spent the last nine years heading up troubled thrifts. Since 1986, he has been chief executive of Sunbelt Savings of Dallas, a conglomeration of assets and deposits from 2 dozen failed Texas S&Ls.; Before that, Wageman held executive positions at First National Bank of Chicago and La Salle National Bank.

According to HomeFed Chairman Kim Fletcher, Wageman was the first choice of HomeFed’s board of directors, which reviewed 35 candidates during its two-month search for Adelizzi’s successor. Adelizzi’s resignation was announced in May, but he stayed on the job until Monday. Regulators forced him out after HomeFed reported a $173.9-million first-quarter loss on top of a $247.5 million loss in 1990.

HomeFed, which has 210 branches, had $16.7 billion in assets as of May 31.

At a Tuesday press conference, Wageman said he will be paid a salary of $650,000 and unspecified stock options, the value of which will be tied to HomeFed’s performance. Wageman’s hiring required the approval of the Office of Thrift Supervision because HomeFed is short of one regulatory capital requirement and soon will be short of another, Fletcher said.

Wageman joined the 49-branch, $3-billion Sunbelt Savings in 1986 after that thrift’s board hired him to step in and take over management. The S&L; failed in 1988 not long after reporting a $1.3-billion first-quarter loss. Regulators then seized Sunbelt and combined it with seven other failed Texas thrifts, part of a $5.5-billion rescue.

Apparently happy with Wageman’s performance, regulators let Wageman stay on as chief executive of the new entity. In 1990, regulators handed two failed San Antonio thrifts over to Sunbelt and shortly thereafter hired it to manage problem assets of 12 other failed Texas thrifts.

Sunbelt today consists of a 110-branch bank with $4 billion in deposits, a mortgage servicing operation with $5 billion in loans and an asset management division with $6 billion in problem loans that are guaranteed against loss by the federal government.

Resolution Trust Corp. took control of Sunbelt Savings two months ago and plans to sell it by the end of the year, Wageman said. Some observers have questioned Wageman’s performance at Sunbelt, noting that most other problem Texas thrifts have been sold or disposed of under the so-called Southwest Plan. But Richard D. Michaels, one of four Sunbelt executives that Wageman is bringing with him to HomeFed, said Tuesday that Sunbelt was never formally part of the Southwest Plan and that it was not offered for sale by the RTC until last month.

At the press conference Tuesday, Wageman declined to discuss specifics of HomeFed’s financial condition but said the strong California economy, HomeFed’s “market franchise” and its early recognition of its problem assets make its chances good for survival.

But Wageman has his work cut out for him. HomeFed’s nonperforming assets totaled $1.5 billion as of March 31, a staggering 8.2% of total assets, and the S&L;’s executives have declined to predict whether problem loans have levelled off. The S&L; has embarked on a strategy of shrinking itself and expects total assets to be down to $15 billion by December from as much as $19 billion last September.

In addition to Michaels, Wageman is also bringing former Sunbelt Savings executives James B. Witherow, Mark H. Wright and James S. Stevenson to work with him at HomeFed. No existing HomeFed executives will be fired to make room for them, Wageman said.

HomeFed shares closed down $.125 a share at $2.625 in New York Stock Exchange trading Tuesday.