Andrew A. Wiederhorn is a man in a hurry.
Toting a portable phone and wearing a gracious but nervous smile, he rushes into the lobby of a fancy New York City hotel and quickly introduces himself.
He is founder and CEO of Portland, Ore.-based Wilshire Financial Services Group, which in five years has grown from $20 million of assets to $1.2 billion and now owns two thrifts.
Making this asset growth all the more impressive is Mr. Wiederhorn's age: 28. He is likely the youngest thrift owner in the country, and he is hardly finished building.
Wilshire primarily buys secondary market loans from federal agencies and banks, and it has a thriving servicing operation that manages 145,000 loans.
However, it is his ambitious plans to acquire more than $1 billion of thrift and bank assets by 1996 that attract notice.
"Growth is clearly our strategy," Mr. Wiederhorn said. "Wilshire has the ability to go in, where another S&L may not be able, to buy a mixed portfolio of performing, nonperforming, and geographically spread loans and buy the institution."
This was the case with First Bank of Beverly Hills and Girard Savings Bank in San Diego, which Wilshire bought in 1993 and 1994, respectively, for several million dollars each.
First Bank was a week away from being seized by the Resolution Trust Corp., and Girard's portfolio had shrunk by half in just a few years, to $100 million of assets.
Why is a loan servicer and finance company interested in ailing thrifts?
"The banks and S&Ls are the best vehicle to offer new products and services to that customer base that we want to hold on to," Mr. Wiederhorn explained. "And using deposits to finance products and services rather than institutional investors makes mores sense."
Wilshire built a client base by buying loans. But instead of relinquishing customers once their loans are paid off, Wilshire hopes to offer them new and lower-priced products through its thrifts.
And because RTC nonperforming loans are rapidly drying up as the agency begins to fold its operations, Wilshire needs to secure new lines of business.
Buying thrifts and banks is also a way to reduce Wilshire's dependence on such institutional investors as mutual fund and insurance companies, which invest in packages of Wilshire loans.
Deposits will offer a more secure and flexible source of funding, Mr. Wiederhorn said.
Once Wilshire reaches $1 billion of thrift and bank assets, Mr. Wiederhorn said - it now has roughly $230 million - it will be ready to acquire institutions with asset sizes of more than $1 billion.
Wearing a pinstripe suit and an impressive gold ring, his dark hair moussed straight back, Mr. Wiederhorn looks like a man on his way. The beep of his portable telephone punctuates the interview, as if to remind him to hurry up and get on with business.
So how did someone so young get ahead so fast?
While in high school in Portland, Mr. Wiederhorn managed several entrepreneurial businesses, including a jet ski rental service for his classmates.
A graduate of the University of Southern California, he got his start in his family's equipment leasing business.
He founded Wilshire in 1987 and quickly proceeded from leasing to buying loans from the RTC, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and banks - building his portfolio to $1 billion of assets at the end of 1994.
The company is 100% owned by Mr. Wiederhorn and his partner and former business school professor, Larry Mendelsohn.
"They are a very dynamic team, and both impress me as very hard working and very principled," said William Schaub of Capital Consultants Inc., a Portland money manager who does business with Wilshire and has known Mr. Wiederhorn since high school.
"I don't think there is any limit to what they can do," he said, "and this is a growing area of the country, and they have an excellent base to establish a significant presence."
Mr. Wiederhorn said he hopes to expand Wilshire's thrift presence beyond California into neighboring states and perhaps as far away as Florida.
He lost out in a bidding war for an Oregon thrift, but Mr. Wiederhorn is undeterred.
Because Wilshire's loan portfolio is spread across the country, the company is uniquely positioned to acquire institutions almost anywhere, Mr. Wiederhorn said.
In fact, First Bank has grown from $90 million of assets to $130 million since Wilshire acquired it in 1993, a 44% increase. Most of the growth has come from loans outside California.
"Right now, we are looking at additional institutions in the California market," he said. "But one of the strategies we have used is, we are immediately diversifying the portfolios outside of California."
Because smaller banks and thrifts are tied to their local markets, they often fall in tandem with it. But by diversifying its portfolio, Mr. Wiederhorn said, a small thrift need not be linked to the vagaries of its particular market.
Both thrifts Wilshire controls do mostly wholesale business although, for Community Reinvestment Act purposes, First Bank now offers checking accounts and is funding a local renovation project.
But Wilshire will never compete with BankAmerica Corp. for retail clients, Mr. Mendelsohn said.
Looking to the future, Mr. Wiederhorn hopes to build Wilshire into a one-stop shopping center for financial services.
And if he succeeds, it probably won't take long.
