Gerald Ford offer to invest $80 mill into FMT is OFF.
NEW YORK, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Fremont General Corp (FMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday it was unable to reach an agreement with investor Gerald J. Ford, who had previously offered to inject $80 million into the troubled subprime mortgage lender.
Fremont, once one of the top 10 mortgage lenders to people with poor credit, said it would continue to explore its options through investment bank Credit Suisse Securities LLC.
The company also said it was in discussions with potential new management teams, and that Chief Executive Louis Rampino and Chief Operating Officer Wayne Bailey would step down once a team was appointed.
Fremont had previously said Ford, a Texas billionaire and former thrift executive, wanted to revise his offer.
Amalgamated Gadget LP, which said it owns more than 8 percent of Fremont, has said it could make an offer "at least as attractive" as Ford's, and hired a former Countrywide Bank (CFC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) chief investment officer to help pursue it.
In March regulators ordered Fremont to stop offering subprime mortgages, and this month the company adopted a stockholder rights plan to discourage investors from accumulating large amounts of its stock.
In addition to Amalgamated, hedge fund activist Harbinger Capital Partners owns 9 percent of Fremont's shares, according to federal filings.
(Reporting by Ed Leefeldt in New York and Neetha Mahadevan in Bangalore) |
