TRADING OF NEW CENTURY SHARES HALTED ON NYSE
March 13th, 2007Related: Wall Street Chop Shop
Via: Bloomberg:
New Century Financial Corp., the nation’s second-biggest subprime mortgage lender, said it doesn’t have the cash to pay creditors who are demanding their money, increasing speculation that the company will go bankrupt.
The New York Stock Exchange, citing the credit crisis, halted trading of New Century this morning until it decides whether to keep listing the company’s securities. Shares of the Irvine, California-based company, already down 90 percent in 2007, lost half their remaining value in pre-market trading, and rivals fell as much as 25 percent today.
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New Century may be insolvent because too many of its own customers — most of whom have poor credit histories or heavy debt burdens — aren’t repaying their loans. Bad U.S. subprime mortgages are at a seven-year high, forcing more than two dozen lenders to close or sell operations. Their woes may contribute to more than 1.5 million Americans losing their homes and 100,000 people losing their jobs, according to real estate executives, economists, analysts and a Federal Reserve governor.
New Century said in a federal filing it doesn’t have funds to repay lenders including Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The creditors want New Century to repurchase all outstanding mortgage loans they financed.
