In Brief: Texas Mortgage Operations File for Chapter 11

FirstCity Financial Corp.'s mortgage subsidiaries have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors, including eight warehouse-lender banks.

FirstCity subsidiaries Harbor Financial Group Inc. and Harbor Financial Mortgage Corp. and certain Harbor Financial subsidiaries filed last week with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas in Dallas, FirstCity said.

In August, FirstCity said the units were in default on the warehouse line.

As of June 30 the units of FirstCity, a corporate descendent of First City Bancorporation of Texas, had drawn $364 million of a $500 million warehouse line, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The three biggest warehouse lenders were Bank One Texas, Guaranty Federal Bank, and PNC Bank, with commitments of $221 million, $75 million and $50 million, respectively, according to the SEC filing.

According to the Daily Bankruptcy Review of Washington, the two largest unsecured creditors were Matrix Capital Bank in Denver, with a $4.2 million claim, and Guaranty Federal Bank of Dallas, which the units owed $3.9 million. FirstCity's filing listed $98.7 million in liabilities, the publication said.

In a statement, FirstCity said its $93 million working capital revolving line of credit was renewed and extended to June 2000, and would not be affected by the bankruptcy filing of its subsidiaries.

FirstCity said that it had not guaranteed Harbor's indebtedness, and that its own corporate revolver lenders had agreed to waive any default by Harbor. The company said it expects to take a $50.5 million loss in its third-quarter results on Harbor, which it purchased two years ago. -- Marc Hochstein

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