Did Los Angeles gain another publicly traded company last week?
Fog Cutter Capital Group Inc., an investment firm that owns the Fatburger fast-food restaurant chain, appears to have quietly relocated its principle operations from Portland, Ore., to Santa Monica.
In a filing last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the firm listed a primary address at 401 Arizona Ave. in Santa Monica. Calls placed to Chief Executive Andrew Wiederhorn and Chief Financial Officer R. Scott Stevenson, who maintain local offices, were not returned.
The phone number for the firm’s Portland office was disconnected, though it is still listed as the primary number on Fog Cutter’s Web site. The Oregonian newspaper reported last week that the firm’s Portland offices appear to have been cleared out.
Wiederhorn, who graduated from USC, had relocated to Los Angeles in the summer in what was reported to be a temporary move to be closer to Fatburger’s operations.
Founded in Los Angeles in 1952, Fatburger has not held up well in the tough economy. A pair of Fatburger subsidiaries that operate eateries in California and Nevada filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2009 and a reorganization plan is pending.
Still, Fog Cutter, which holds an 82 percent stake in the chain, said in an SEC filing last week that it “is pursuing a growth strategy at Fatburger,” which has 93 locations, mostly in the United States.
“We plan to open additional Fatburger restaurants throughout the United States and internationally, including Canada, China, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates,” the firm said.
With Fatburger sales down, Fog Cutter last week reported a loss of $672,000 on revenue of $3.4 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30.
Fog Cutter, which was founded in 1997 and took a controlling stake in Fatburger in 2003, is traded on the Pink Sheets. Shares closed March 31 at 9 cents.
Loan Sale
Verona Capital Markets Inc., a real estate capital markets adviser in Century City, is marketing a $135 million portfolio of Southern California residential land loans on behalf of an undisclosed national bank.
The mortgages are on residential lots in Ventura, Orange and San Diego counties, and are currently performing, but Verona admits many soon will become nonperforming.
Executives declined to provide details on the properties and how much the portfolio is being discounted. But indications are the parcels are undeveloped infill lots. Verona plans to market the portfolio to institutional investors and homebuilders, who presumably would be in a position to develop or sell them.
“There is renewed interest from homebuilders in this type of asset class,” said Eliav Dan, managing principal of the firm.
Verona expects to complete the sale by the end of the second quarter.
Climbing the Ranks
Several of L.A.’s largest depository institutions are gaining prominence on the national stage by taking advantage of the tumult in the banking industry.
OneWest Bank, City National Bank and East West Bank – which have each completed at least one major acquisition in recent months – now rank among the country’s 50 largest banks and thrifts, according to data recently compiled by SNL Financial, an industry research firm in Charlottesville, Va.
None of the institutions ranked in the top 50 at the beginning of 2009. But thanks to a combination of timely acquisitions and the failure of other large banks, each of the local institutions now ranks among the largest.
OneWest, a thrift in Pasadena, was the largest local depository institution and the 42nd largest in the United States at the end of the fourth quarter with assets of $23.3 billion. City National, a commercial bank in downtown Los Angeles, ranked No. 45 nationally with $21.1 billion in assets. East West, a bank in Pasadena, came in at No. 46 with assets of $20.6 billion.
Consent Order
Golden Coast Bank, a small one-branch institution headquartered in Long Beach, has entered into a consent order with federal regulators.
The order, issued Feb. 12 by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and revealed publicly March 26, directs the institution to assemble a committee to handle compliance-related activities and to “correct all violations of consumer laws.” The violations were not specified in the order.
Golden Coast, which has $36 million in assets, ranks among L.A.’s smallest banks. The institution specializes in small business and commercial real estate lending.
Chief Executive George Hwang declined comment.
C-Suite News
Hanmi Financial Corp., the Koreatown holding company for Hanmi Bank, announced that it has received regulatory approval for the previously announced appointment of Jung Hak Son as chief credit officer.
