No. 45

Household Buys Transamerica Division

In a year of multibillion-dollar mergers, few deals could match Household International’s $1.1 billion acquisition of Transamerica Financial Services, the L.A.-based consumer finance arm of San Francisco-based insurance giant Transamerica Corp.

In the deal, which was announced in May and closed June 23, Prospect Heights, Ill.-based Household acquired 420 Transamerica offices in 44 states with $3.6 billion in loans and other receivables. All but 93 of those branch offices have been shut down or merged into Household Finance Corp., now the nation’s second-largest consumer finance corporation.

Most of Transamerica Financial’s 392 L.A. employees at its headquarters in the landmark Transamerica Center in downtown L.A. were let go, although the office tower remains occupied by Transamerica Corp.’s life insurance subsidiary.

Transamerica, which had been plagued by falling profits, used the proceeds from the deal to pay down debt and repurchase stock.