Dale Baker,
The Nov 2002 call on Fremont General was great. The
company has returned to profitability, and the stock is now
reflecting the fact. The stock is up to $9.36 from my
most recent brokerage statement. I have owned it since
1999; here are notes. (if you want the qtrly financials e-
mail me). Here is an example of a good company getting out of an unprofitable business and catching the home refinancing trend and becoming very profitable. I believe this company survived because the employees and directors owned more than 30% if the stocks so its was in the best interest of everyone in the company to keep the company afloat. There were no desperado unions included.
Dec 14, 2000 - FMT announces it will restructure its
Workers Comp ins division. It will close 2/3 of its ofcs
and layoff more than half of its ins personell. It will
take a $278 mill write off of intangibles/goodwill and $20
mill restructuring charge. It appears FMT is severely
cutting back its workers comp ins business and will go with
its S&L as its main driver into the future.
Nov 29, 2000 FMT agrees with CA dept of Ins DOI to limit
new and renewal ins prms to $400 mill for 2001
it looks like the DOI has given FMT a breathing spell to
get profitable and stay in business and mitigate the
enormous losses of last year. Since FMT writes business
thru subsidiaries I don't know how this decision
will affect total revenues or premiums. I will hold
because FMT has been profitable, has lots of employee
ownership has diversified into a s&l.
Mar 3, 2000
FMT states is took an addl charge of $75 mill relating to the workers comp. Disaster with
Reliance. A cool feature of the Reliance/FMT settlement is Reliance pays FMT $100 mill
to exit the workers comp business; no pmt schedule was disclosed. Note FMT has
bought back 15% of its shs outstanding since EOY 1998; this should zoom eps when FMT
returns to profitability. I hope the charges from 3q99 and 4q99 are large enough and no
addl charges need to be taken over the next few yrs (see TW handling of Northridge earthquake).
Dec 8, 1999 The Finova Group Inc. ,FNV, said on Wednesday it agreed to buy
Fremont Financial Corp., the commercial lending subsidiary of insurance
group Fremont General Corp. (NYSE:FMT - news), for $765 million in cash,
including debt. I bought at the open; this news was announced at 11:00 am. I got lucky
Dec 8, 1999 - Bought 400 shs @ 5 5/16. Here is a consistently profitable
company that has stood the up-and-downs of the casualty and property cycle that is
getting trashed in a down cycle. Nobody (but Carey) loves you when you're
down and out. Financed by selling 300 shs of UACA. Personal acct transaction.
Keep up the good work and I am listening in the background so keep posting.
Continued Gook Luck investing.
Carey |
