Corus' Chief Exec, Chairman Step Down

The father and son team who oversaw Corus Bankshares Inc.'s aggressive bet on condominium lending have left.

The Chicago company announced late Friday that Robert J. Glickman had resigned as its president and chief executive officer. His father, Joseph C. Glickman, resigned as the chairman. Both cited "personal reasons."

Neither resignation was the result of a disagreement with the $8.3 billion-asset Corus, the company said. Randy P. Curtis, an executive vice president, became the interim president and CEO.

The Glickman family owns roughly 44% of Corus' stock, which has been in a tailspin since the summer. The company went from a star performer to a candidate for failure within a few quarters. It had never reported a loss before the second quarter of last year, but its auditors recently questioned its ability to remain a going concern.

At yearend more than half its loans were nonperforming. Nearly all the $2 billion of nonperformers were loans to condo developers in formerly hot real estate areas, including South Florida, Atlanta and Phoenix. For the fourth quarter, Corus reported a loss of $316.7 million, compared with a profit of $1.9 million a year earlier.

On Feb. 18 the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave Corus 60 days to submit a plan to raise capital and 120 days to get its Corus Bank to the prescribed elevated capital levels or face a forced sale. There has been no indication about whether the regulators accepted Corus' capital plan.

Shares of Corus have dropped 97% in the past year and were trading for less than a quarter Monday.

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