In Brief: La. Subprime Lender Files for Bankruptcy

Subprime lender United Companies Financial Corp. said Monday it would file for bankruptcy protection and sell 36 of its 200 offices and Ginger Mae, its bank-partnership subsidiary.

Greenwich Capital Financial Products Inc. and The CIT Group/Business Credit Inc. will provide $500 million in debtor-in-possession financing and a warehouse facility, United Companies said. The company said Greenwich would buy its home equity loans.

United Companies, one of many consumer finance specialists that ran into trouble last year when the market for their asset- backed debt dried up, said last month that chief executive officer J. Terrell Brown would take a leave of absence to try to raise money for the company.

Turnaround specialist Deborah Hicks Midanek, a principal with Jay Alix & Associates, was hired to run the company and has been named chief executive officer.

Trading in the company's stock was suspended Monday.

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