Firstplus Financial Group

Although two subsidiaries of Dallas-based FirstPlus Financial Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy recently, the move will not affect the Tustin-based banking affiliate, the lender's president said Monday. The two divisions, FirstPlus Financial Inc. and FirstPlus Special Funding Corp., have filed for protection from creditors. But FirstPlus Bank is "well capitalized and very profitable," said president Mike McGuire, adding that the bank has $246 million in deposits.

Although two subsidiaries of Dallas-based FirstPlus Financial Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy recently, the move will not affect the Tustin-based banking affiliate, the lender's president said Monday. The two divisions, FirstPlus Financial Inc. and FirstPlus Special Funding Corp., have filed for protection from creditors. But FirstPlus Bank is "well capitalized and very profitable," said president Mike McGuire, adding that the bank has $246 million in deposits.

After failing to find a buyer, beleaguered home equity lender FirstPlus Financial Group said Thursday that it will sell off several affiliates, fire 3,000 people and close a major marketing center in Orange County. The Dallas-based company, one of several "sub-prime" lenders felled by the global credit crunch and disarray in the mortgage lending market, said it will move its direct-marketing operations from Mission Viejo to Dallas as part of the consolidation.

FirstPlus Financial, which closed its home mortgage affiliate in Mission Viejo last month and folded the unit into the parent company in Dallas, has been sued by a pair of vendors who contend they are owed nearly $750,000. Entex Information Services Inc. of Massachusetts, a supplier of computer networking equipment, was not paid for $381,139 in high-tech goods that it provided from May through September, according to a lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court.

After failing to find a buyer, beleaguered home equity lender FirstPlus Financial Group said Thursday that it will sell off several affiliates, fire 3,000 people and close a major marketing center in Orange County. The Dallas-based company, one of several "subprime" lenders felled by the global credit crunch and disarray in the mortgage market, said it will move its direct-marketing operations from Mission Viejo to Dallas as part of the consolidation.

Home equity lender FirstPlus Financial Group Inc. said Tuesday that third-quarter earnings plunged 70%. The company also told investors and analysts in a conference call that it faces hurdles before it can close an agreement to sell off key portions of its business to Coast-to-Coast Financial Corp.--a sale that's essential to its survival. "If the Coast-to-Coast deal, which is dependent on financing, isn't completed, they're going to be out of business," said Michael Abrahams at Sutro & Co.

FirstPlus Financial, which closed its home mortgage affiliate in Mission Viejo last month and folded the unit into the parent company in Dallas, has been sued by a pair of vendors who contend they are owed nearly $750,000. Entex Information Services Inc. of Massachusetts, a supplier of computer networking equipment, was not paid for $381,139 in high-tech goods that it provided from May through September, according to a lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court.

Ending months of speculation about its future, mortgage lending giant DiTech Funding Corp. of Irvine said Monday that it agreed to be acquired by GMAC Mortgage Corp., a unit of General Motors Corp. Terms were not disclosed. DiTech, one of the Southland's largest mortgage lenders and an aggressive marketer of higher-risk home equity loans, shelved plans for an initial public stock offering last fall that it had hoped would raise about $110 million for a minority stake in the company.

* Life Financial Corp., a sub-prime mortgage and home equity lender based in Riverside, has agreed to be acquired by FirstPlus Financial Group Inc. of Dallas for about $138 million in stock. * CALPERS, California's large public pension fund, said it will vote against Marriott International Inc.'s plan to combine its food-service business with France's Sodexho Alliance, because the fund opposes anti-takeover defenses tied to the merger. * Williams-Sonoma Inc.

A fast-growing Dallas finance company said Thursday that it has completed its acquisition of Citizens Thrift & Loan and Citizens' parent company in a stock swap valued at $29.6 million. FirstPlus Financial Group Inc. said it expects the loans and other assets of the Tustin thrift and loan to grow from $125 million to $300 million during the next 12 months. FirstPlus is retaining all employees and adding more, said Eric C. Green, the company's chief financial officer.

Home equity lender FirstPlus Financial Group Inc. said Tuesday that third-quarter earnings plunged 70%. The company also told investors and analysts in a conference call that it faces hurdles before it can close an agreement to sell off key portions of its business to Coast-to-Coast Financial Corp.--a sale that's essential to its survival. "If the Coast-to-Coast deal, which is dependent on financing, isn't completed, they're going to be out of business," said Michael Abrahams at Sutro & Co.

After failing to find a buyer, beleaguered home equity lender FirstPlus Financial Group said Thursday that it will sell off several affiliates, fire 3,000 people and close a major marketing center in Orange County. The Dallas-based company, one of several "sub-prime" lenders felled by the global credit crunch and disarray in the mortgage lending market, said it will move its direct-marketing operations from Mission Viejo to Dallas as part of the consolidation.

After failing to find a buyer, beleaguered home equity lender FirstPlus Financial Group said Thursday that it will sell off several affiliates, fire 3,000 people and close a major marketing center in Orange County. The Dallas-based company, one of several "subprime" lenders felled by the global credit crunch and disarray in the mortgage market, said it will move its direct-marketing operations from Mission Viejo to Dallas as part of the consolidation.

First Union Corp. agreed Wednesday to buy The Money Store Inc. for $2.1 billion in a move that would enable the big banking company to establish a coast-to-coast presence in the consumer home-equity and small-business loan industries.