Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. said its ongoing viability is in doubt.
“Accredited’s financial and operational viability becomes increasingly uncertain” if the deal for affiliates of Lone Star Fund V to acquire the struggling subprime lender falls through, the San Diego-based lender said in a 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission today. “Whether the acquisition will ultimately be completed is not presently determinable.”
An agreement for Lone Star U.S. Acquisitions LLC to acquire Accredited was announced in June. But that deal appeared to start falling apart when Accredited issued a bleak outlook in an Aug. 2 SEC filing indicating employee morale was shot, executives had been sidetracked with the integration of a recently acquired company and the prospects for its continued survival were in doubt.
Accredited reported on Aug. 13 that Lone Star had backed out of the deal — prompting it to file a lawsuit against Lone Star Fund V and two affiliates to force the merger. Lone relented on Aug. 15, extending the deadline until Aug. 28 but noted at the time, “the company’s failure to satisfy all of such conditions continues.” Accredited responded that it saw no reason for an extension since it had completed the conditions of the merger.
Lone Star shot back at the beginning of this month with a revised $8.50 per share offer — well below the original $15.10 per share offered — which Accredited rebuffed. Last week, Lone Star Fund extended its tender offer to until midnight on Friday — though it still noted conditions to closing remain unsatisfied.
Yesterday, Lone Star subsidiary Accredited Investments LLC said in an SEC filing that it had again extended the offer — this time until Sept. 28. And again, the company noted, “the company’s failure to satisfy all of such conditions continues.”
Lone Star also cited “the drastic deterioration in the financial and operational condition of the company” in yesterday’s filing.
Today’s filing indicated Accredited, which suspended loan originations earlier this month, held $7.6 billion in mortgages for investment as of March 31.
The company reported a class action complaint, Hayes v. Accredited Home Lenders Holding, Co. and Accredited Home Lenders Inc., was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California alleging violations of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
