Bank stocks slipped Tuesday, and shares of BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc. were among the biggest decliners after the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company agreed to sell its Ryan Beck Holdings Inc. brokerage.
The $6.6 billion-asset BankAtlantic is selling the unit to Stifel Financial Corp. of St. Louis for $96 million, a lower price than some had expected. Last month at least one analyst had suggested that Ryan Beck could fetch as much as $200 million.
Shares of Stifel soared nearly 14% Tuesday. BankAtlantic dropped 4.2%. Some analysts said the drop was also fueled by the fact that the company would retain a hand in the brokerage business, in the form of an 18% stake in Stifel.
The American Banker index of 225 banking companies slipped 0.3%, the thrift index declined 0.25%, the Standard & Poor's 500 lost 0.05%, and the Dow Jones industrial average slipped 0.06%.
Franklin Bank Corp. in Houston lost 2.4% a day after the $5.2 billion-asset parent of Franklin Bank SSB said that it would report fourth-quarter earnings 40 cents a share lower than expected, because of a pair of charges related to a balance-sheet restructuring and an increase in loan-loss reserves.
The company earned $7.9 million, or 33 cents a share, in the third quarter. It expects to recover the charges within about two years.
Fremont General Corp. of Santa Monica, Calif., fell 3.3%. Bloomberg News reported that the $12.8 billion-asset company, through its Fremont Investment and Loan, had tightened its subprime mortgage lending guidelines for a second time this year. According to an internal memo cited by Bloomberg, Fremont General will stop giving mortgages to some of the customers it deems the least creditworthy.
A Fremont General spokesman would not discuss the matter, according to the report.
New Century Financial Corp. of Irvine, Calif., rose 3.3%. The company said that its mortgage loan production rose 6.6% last year, to a record $59.8 billion.
