The once-troubled New Century Financial Corp. of Irvine, Calif., has been ranked No. 12 on Fortune magazine's annual list of the 100 fastest-growing companies.
Three years ago the subprime lender lost $23 million, largely because credit problems forced it to write down the value of residual bonds from its securitizations, buy back securitized loans that had turned delinquent, and increase loss reserves.
Robert Cole, its chairman and chief executive, revamped the company and turned to whole-loan sales rather than securitizations as a primary source of funding.
Since the changes New Century has been profitable, and it has set earnings records for several quarters. Its stock, which was trading at $24.50 a share at midday Thursday, has risen 425% since April 2001.
