Is the Ameriquest empire assembled by Roland E. Arnall about to be dismantled?
The Los Angeles billionaire's financial lending business has declined sharply since his appointment as ambassador to the Netherlands in February. On Monday, his holding company sold car-loan subsidiary Long Beach Acceptance Corp. to a Texas buyer for $282.5 million.
Some believe that Arnall's big home loan units, Ameriquest Mortgage Co. and Argent Mortgage Co., could be next to go.
Ameriquest Mortgage agreed to pay $325 million in January to settle allegations of predatory lending practices. Four months later it said it would eliminate 3,800 jobs and shut down 229 retail branches.
Once the No. 1 lender in the so-called sub-prime market, designed for people with blemished credit or other issues, Ameriquest has tumbled to seventh place this year, according to data tracker Inside Mortgage Finance.
David Olson of Wholesale Access Mortgage Research & Consulting Inc., based in Columbia, Md., is among those who think a sale or outright closure of Ameriquest and Argent is increasingly likely. The sub-prime market "has been a disaster for the past six months," he said.
National Mortgage News and other trade publications reported last week that JPMorgan Chase & Co. has been retained to take offers for all or part of ACC Capital Holdings, Arnall's Orange-based holding company.
A JPMorgan spokesman said Tuesday that the investment bank had handled the sale of Long Beach Acceptance to AmeriCredit Corp. of Fort Worth. He declined to say whether other assets -- including Ameriquest and Argent -- were up for grabs.
Aseem Mital, ACC Capital's chief executive, declined to discuss the potential for a sale of the company's mortgage operations. In a statement, Mital said that selling the auto loan unit enabled ACC Capital "to focus our resources and efforts on our core mortgage business as we strategically position the company for the future."
Ameriquest executives have described Paramus, N.J.-based Long Beach Acceptance as a minor part of Arnall's empire. In ACC Capital's audited financial statements for 2005, which were obtained this year by The Times, that assessment was reflected in the net worth assigned to each ACC subsidiary.
Long Beach Acceptance's net worth was listed at $54 million, compared with Ameriquest Mortgage at $257 million, Argent Mortgage at $169 million and AMC Mortgage Servicing Inc., the company's billing and collecting arm, at $344 million.
