AmeriCredit Corp., a Fort Worth subprime auto lender, has agreed to buy Long Beach Acceptance Corp. for $282.5 million in cash from ACC Capital Holdings, the Orange, Calif., parent of Ameriquest Mortgage Co.
Long Beach, of Paramus, N.J., serves “near-prime” customers with FICO scores from 620 to 675. AmeriCredit served only customers with scores of 500 to 650 until May, when it bought Bay View Acceptance Corp., the Covina, Calif., auto finance unit of Bay View Capital Corp., for $63.6 million. Bay View Acceptance serves prime borrowers with FICO scores of 730 to 740.
“We felt we had a gap in our product spectrum for the near-prime and prime customers,” Dan Berce, AmeriCredit’s president, said in an interview Tuesday.
The deal for Long Beach, announced Monday, is expected to close in the first quarter. Long Beach would become a stand-alone unit of AmeriCredit, and Stephen Prough would remain the chief executive.
ACC reportedly is seeking a buyer for Ameriquest.
