Ford Weighing Three Bids for First Nationwide : Banking: It has lost $200 million on the thrift since 1991. Great Western is among the suitors.
Ford Motor Co. is likely to select one of three bids next week for its First Nationwide Financial Corp. unit, people close to the situation said Friday.
One of the two bidders that have been identified is Dallas-based Madison Financial Inc. The second bidder, Los Angeles-based Great Western Financial Corp., has teamed up with Lehman Bros. Inc., a unit of American Express Co.
The sources said the third bidder for the San Francisco-based thrift is Golden West Financial Corp., based in Oakland.
Ford has set a Monday night deadline for final bids, one source said. The company is trying to rid itself of the thrift, which has lost $200 million since 1991.
Golden West, with $29 billion in assets, last month terminated a three-month effort to acquire California Federal Bank, a thrift based in Los Angeles with $15.3 billion in assets.
“We never comment on our acquisition activity,” said Dirk Adams, group senior vice president at Golden West.
Ford also declined comment on its plans for First Nationwide, but it has disclosed that it is exploring “strategic options” for the operation that “could include the sale of a substantial portion of the bank’s assets.”
The sources said the bids for First Nationwide could have a nominal value as high as $1 billion but added that the deal’s structure is likely to be complicated, with Ford retaining a significant amount of the thrift’s $900 million in problem loans.
Analysts have said Lehman is interested in reselling some of First Nationwide’s non-performing loans at a profit as the economy improves.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Golden West was preparing to enter the bidding for First Nationwide. But people familiar with Ford’s sale efforts said Golden West has long been interested in acquiring the $16 billion-asset thrift.
“They’ve danced in and out on this thing,” one source said of Golden West. “They’re not a late entry.”
Ford quietly put First Nationwide on the auction block last year. The thrift, dogged by the collapse of the U.S. commercial real estate market in the late 1980s, has lost $200 million over the last three years, including $55 million in 1993, $72 million in 1992 and $73 million in 1991.
Selling the bank would eliminate a drag on Ford’s strong-performing Financial Services Group, which earned a record $1.6 billion in 1993, more than the auto maker earned selling cars and trucks. The group also includes Ford Motor Credit Co., the Associates and USL Capital Inc.
Analysts have said Ford will probably take a loss on the First Nationwide sale. Ford bought the thrift in 1985 for $493 million, but it has since pumped nearly $1.3 billion in capital into it.
