Word: lender
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...McColl Jr. has scaled the Swiss Alps and Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro. But his loftiest goal is to lead NationsBank, the Charlotte, N.C., company he has run since 1983, to the summit of American banking. Through more than 50 acquisitions, McColl has turned NationsBank into the third largest U.S. lender (behind Chase Manhattan and Citicorp), with branches in 16 states and $316 billion in assets. And NationsBank stock, which has swelled to $65 billion in total value, makes the bank No. 1 in market capital. "In most of life's endeavors," declares McColl, 62, "you are either growing or dying...
...companies in 1994 to some 50 participants last year. Giants such as GE Capital, Norwest Financial and Ford's Associates First Capital came barreling in alongside lesser-known newcomers. But the overcrowded field swiftly became unforgiving. For example, the market value of Mercury Finance, a sub-prime auto lender in Lake Forest, Ill., collapsed from $2.2 billion to $130 million last year after the company disclosed that it had overstated profits...
...Such lenders were unable to navigate the economy's rapid crosscurrents. Even as defaults eroded profits, the booming economy has allowed some sub-prime borrowers to pay off their loans ahead of schedule. That has reduced income and ruined profit projections in many parts of the industry. Notes Daniel Phillips, chairman of FirstPlus Financial, a Dallas sub-prime lender: "No matter how conservative a lender's assumptions are, no crystal ball allows him to see what may happen...
...Green Tree seems likely to ride out its troubles. The company employs 5,700 people at 200 locations across the country and holds a whopping 30% of the lucrative market for financing mobile homes, making it the sector's largest lender. In addition, more than 90% of its $28 billion loan portfolio is secured by mobile homes, houses and other customer assets. Such backing is rare in the sub-prime industry and enables Green Tree to recover a relatively high proportion of losses when customers default on their payments. And despite problems such as the downgrading of much of Green...
Like other sub-prime lenders, Green Tree makes a business of bundling up loans and selling them as packages of asset-backed securities to pension funds and other big investors. That replenishes Green Tree's capital and lets the lender make fresh loans and thus pump up volume, which grew...