Title Insurance Company Plans an Acquisition : Expansion: Fidelity National Financial has tentative agreement to buy company owned by Harry and Leona Helmsley.

By JAMES S. GRANELLI

Oct. 6, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

IRVINE —

Fidelity National Financial Inc. said Monday that it has agreed tentatively to acquire Security Title and Guaranty Co. in New York for $21 million in cash.

The deal for Security, a subsidiary of Helmsley Enterprises Inc., would give the Irvine parent company for Fidelity National Title Insurance Co. its third large acquisition this year.

“We’re really excited about this acquisition,” said William P. Foley II, Fidelity’s president and chief executive. “It’s more beneficial in terms of purchase price than Meridian was.”

Last June, Fidelity completed its acquisition of Meridian Title Insurance Co. in Reading, Pa., and its subsidiary, American Title Insurance Co. That $21.1-million purchase nearly doubled Fidelity’s size to about $250 million in assets, including $133 million in cash and cashlike investments. But Meridian also had socked away a lot in reserves for possible investment losses.

The Security deal would give Fidelity $50 million in assets, but $46 million of that amount is in cash and short-term investments, leaving little risk for Fidelity to assume.

Fidelity also would benefit by expanding its business while consolidating most of Security’s 11 agency offices from Massachusetts to Florida into existing Fidelity offices on the East Coast.

In buying Security, Fidelity also would return $4.5 million in assets to Helmsley Enterprises, a Harry and Leona Helmsley company. The assets, Foley said, are second mortgages on New York and New Jersey property.

Last year, Security reported profit of $485,830 on $30.7 million in revenue. It is licensed in 24 states, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, the Bahamas and the British West Indies.

For the first six months of this year, Fidelity earned $7.1 million on revenue of $153.2 million.

Fidelity issues title insurance through subsidiaries in 48 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.