Plaza Home Mortgage Reduces Its Selling Price in Deal by $30 Million : Finance: The Santa Ana mortgage banking firm had agreed to be acquired by Fleet National for $120 million.

Plaza Home Mortgage Corp. said Tuesday it has reduced the price that Fleet National Bank will have to pay to acquire the company.

Plaza’s selling price is now an estimated $89 million, down from the $120 million on which the two companies agreed in September.

Though Plaza did not offer an explanation for the price reduction, analysts noted that it followed a bigger-than-expected third-quarter loss of $11.6 million, or 99 cents a share, and that the home mortgage business in general was hurt last year by rising interest rates, which drastically reduced refinancing activity.

Plaza, based in Santa Ana, said the new price to be paid by Fleet, a subsidiary of Fleet Financial Group Inc. of Providence, R.I., is equivalent to $7.625 a share, down from $10.125.

In Tuesday’s Nasdaq trading, Plaza’s stock closed at $7 a share, down $1. Fleet, traded on the New York Stock Exchange, closed at $32.50, up 12 cents.

Plaza, the holding company for Plaza Home Mortgage Bank, is the nation’s 23rd-largest mortgage lender and one of the major providers of housing loans to minorities.

Acquiring the company would make Fleet the nation’s fourth-largest mortgage lender.

Gary Gordon, an analyst for the brokerage PaineWebber Inc. in New York, said Tuesday that, despite its third-quarter loss, Plaza is an attractive acquisition because of its loan portfolio, which was servicing $9.2 billion in loans at mid-1994.

As for the outlook in the new year for the home mortgage market, Gordon said, “It hasn’t gotten worse, but it hasn’t gotten better.”

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Ups and Downs

Plaza Home Mortgage Corp.’s stock price seesawed during 1994. Closing price per share on the final Friday of each month:

Tuesday: $7.00

Source: Dow Jones Stock Quote Reporter Service