ECC Takes Hit After Killing Dividend

ECC Capital Corp., Irvine, Calif., saw its share price get clobbered Feb. 27 after the subprime lender revealed that it would not pay a dividend for the first quarter of 2006.The lender blamed the dividend policy on "losses in its mortgage banking segment." The lender's general counsel declined to discuss the matter with MortgageWire. Its shares closed down 28%, to $1.36 a share, on Feb. 27. ECC, a real estate investment trust, trimmed 440 full-timers in early January, about 27% of its work force. ECC, the parent of Encore Credit Corp., went public a year ago. It is scheduled to report fourth-quarter and full-year 2005 earnings by the end of March.