In Brief: Contifinancial Given Up to$1.6B of Loans

arranged for up to $1.6 billion of loans from Greenwich Capital Markets Inc., a subsidiary of London-based National Westminster Bank.

Greenwich has agreed to provide a $500 million loan to purchase servicing released whole loans from Conti. It also agreed to provide a warehouse facility of up to $250 million, which would allow Conti to continue funding loans. Its previous warehouse lines expired last month.

And Greenwich will underwrite, by month's end, an $850 million securitization of home equity loan funded by Contifinancial's warehouse counterparties.

Alan H. Fishman, Conti's president and chief executive officer, said the deal would provide financing for 100% of its loan production. Jerome M. Perelson, senior vice president, said the new loan facility does not affect Conti's ownership or management structure.

Mark R. Girolamo, a fixed-income analyst at Deutsche Banc Alex Brown said the main concern now is how Conti will renegotiate its bank line that are coming due Aug. 20; the liquidity provided by Greenwich will not cover those loans. Mr. Girolamo said the securitization deal would enable Conti to make fees on loans for servicing.

Conti was really scampering to find financing for their business, Mr. Girolamo said. This will get them through the short-term with the warehouse lines that were due last month, but they still have to work out something with the banks this month.

Last month GMAC-Residential Funding Corp. pulled the plug on negotiations to buy Conti.