Ailing New Century Gets $265M LOC, but ...

Troubled B&C giant New Century Financial Corp., Irvine, Calif., secured a $265 million line of credit March 8 from a large unidentified lender but still could be headed for bankruptcy court.After the company revealed in a public filing that it had limited financing -- the $265 million -- stock analysts continued to predict its demise. Merrill Lynch & Co. issued a research report March 9 saying the nondepository's "next disclosure" likely will be a bankruptcy filing. Sources told MortgageWire that the company is trying to sell the firm, but is running out of time. According to the Quarterly Data Report, NCFC is the nation's 14th-largest subprime servicer, with $40 billion in receivables. Meanwhile, the company said it is funding little in the way of new loans -- an allegation that first appeared on the Grapevine, a broker discussion board operated by National Mortgage News. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, NCFC reported that it had been hit by $150 million worth of margin calls -- $80 million of which it had satisfied. Disclosures about a criminal probe and possible bankruptcy filing have swamped the company's stock over the past 10 days. New Century, the nation's second-largest subprime funder in the fourth quarter, can be found online at http://www.ncen.com.