California Center Bank

Hanmi Financial Corp. said Wednesday it agreed to buy California Center Bank for about $103 million in cash, a deal that would make the combined Los Angeles-based institution one of the larger local lenders to Asian-owned businesses. "I think we have to be larger to compete in this ethnic market," said Chung Hoon Youk, Hanmi's president and chief executive. He said the combined company would be the area's largest lender to Korean-owned businesses.

* California Center Bank said it called off plans to be acquired by Hanmi Financial Corp., another Los Angeles bank that focuses on lending to Asian-owned businesses. The company said its board decided to terminate the letter of intent entered into with Hanmi on May 3 because Hanmi had "materially modified" the proposal. California Center Bank also reiterated its financial projections for 2001. * Aluminum maker Alcoa Inc. said it will shut down a magnesium smelter in Addy, Wash.

California Center Bank, Los Angeles, reelected Chung Hyun Lee, chairman, and David Z. Hong, vice chairman.

Hanmi Financial Corp. said Wednesday it agreed to buy California Center Bank for about $103 million in cash, a deal that would make the combined Los Angeles-based institution one of the larger local lenders to Asian-owned businesses. "I think we have to be larger to compete in this ethnic market," said Chung Hoon Youk, Hanmi's president and chief executive. He said the combined company would be the area's largest lender to Korean-owned businesses.

Four fast-growing Korean American banks dominated the top ranks of Small Business Administration lenders in the Los Angeles area in 1999, according to a Times analysis of agency data, boosting the banks' fortunes and providing a lift to many minority-owned firms.

* California Center Bank said it called off plans to be acquired by Hanmi Financial Corp., another Los Angeles bank that focuses on lending to Asian-owned businesses. The company said its board decided to terminate the letter of intent entered into with Hanmi on May 3 because Hanmi had "materially modified" the proposal. California Center Bank also reiterated its financial projections for 2001. * Aluminum maker Alcoa Inc. said it will shut down a magnesium smelter in Addy, Wash.

Gardena police were investigating leads in last week's shooting and robbery of a store manager who was carrying $300 in change out of a bank on Redondo Beach Boulevard. Mike Redden, 40, manager of 1st Hour Photo Lab, was in good condition Wednesday at County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center after Friday's shooting outside California Center Bank. Redden won $1 million in the Big Spin lottery last month, but police said his winnings did not appear to have anything to do with the robbery.

Kim-Yen Huynh, a business development officer at California Center Bank's Garden Grove office, has been unanimously elected president of Orange County's Vietnamese-American Chamber of Commerce. Huynh, who has been on the chamber's board since 1991, is the first woman to serve as the group's president. Board members elected her at a meeting late Tuesday. Huynh, 52, wants to expand the chamber's base of 250 members and promote seminars that will aid small businesses in Little Saigon.

To serve the financing needs of the Latino small-business community, a consortium of banks today will unveil the East Los Angeles Small Business Development Center. The business center, at 5161 E. Pomona Blvd., Suite 212, will help East Los Angeles businesses more easily obtain capital and get management training and financial advice, said Alberto Alvarado, district director of the Los Angeles office of the Small Business Administration.

Shortly after being named president of the Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce this week, Kim-Yen Huynh has her first assignment begins tonight--a low-key business trip to Vietnam. The 52-year-old executive banker, who fled Vietnam in 1975, said she will represent her employer, California Center Bank in Garden Grove, which also has offices in Vietnam, by promoting international banking services.

Four fast-growing Korean American banks dominated the top ranks of Small Business Administration lenders in the Los Angeles area in 1999, according to a Times analysis of agency data, boosting the banks' fortunes and providing a lift to many minority-owned firms.

California Center Bank, Los Angeles, reelected Chung Hyun Lee, chairman, and David Z. Hong, vice chairman.

* Carson-based vitamin supplier Leiner Health Products has promoted Steve Miller to senior vice president and chief financial officer. Before joining Leiner as vice president of financial planning in 1997, Miller held several financial executive positions at PepsiCo from 1983 to 1997, including finance director for the bottling operations in Florida and South Georgia, and director of planning for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. * Los Angeles-based real estate company Douglas Emmett & Co.

While California's big banks have captured headlines with pending mergers and promises to do more small-business lending, hundreds of small- and mid-size banks have been quietly giving out more than half the dollars loaned to small businesses in the state. Last year, small banks loaned $2.4 billion to small businesses, while the eight major California banks loaned $1.9 billion, according to a new study by the federal Small Business Administration.