US Facilities Corp. 1st-Quarter Profits Up Fivefold Over ’94

US Facilities Corp., an insurance company, recorded a first-quarter profit of $2.92 million, or 52 cents a share, nearly five times the $600,000, or 10 cents a share, profit the company posted for the same quarter last year. Company officials said the surge could be attributed to strong premium growth this year and to the company’s restructuring. Officials also said that its first quarter 1994 performance was affected by a $1.4-million drain from claims from the January, 1994, Northridge earthquake. Profit for the first quarter this year was diminished by the severance costs of the resignation of company chairman and chief executive officer George Kadonada, which cut net income by $500,000, or 9 cents per share. First quarter revenue increased 16% to a record $35.5 million, up from $30.5 million a year ago.

US Facilities specializes in medical stop-loss insurance and in underwriting property and casualty insurance. For the past 13 months, the company has been the target of a hostile takeover by Fidelity National Financial Inc. of Irvine, one of the nation’s larger title insurers.

Fidelity wants to diversify its operations to rely less on the wide fluctuation in earnings that plague real estate-related operations such as Fidelity’s core business.