First American Loses $8.3 Million

Net losses related to investments and restructuring contributed to a third-quarter net loss of $8.3 million (-$0.09 per share) at mortgage-related services and technology provider First American Corp., Santa Ana, Calif. One year prior, it had net earnings of $46.6 million ($0.49 per share). The title insurance and services segment took a pretax loss of $27.0 million for the third quarter (compared with profits of $43.7 million the previous year). But the company said, take away investment losses of $44.6 million, employee separation costs of $8.6 million and lease termination costs of $5.5 million, the segment would have reported pretax income of $31.6 million. Title orders opened during the quarter fell from 555,800 in the third quarter 2007 to 438,600 in the most recent period, while at the same time, paid title claims went from 70,904 up to 76,307. Total revenues for the title business declined from $1.4 billion in the third quarter 2007 to $957.1 million for the most recent period. The information and outsourcing solutions business contributed $29.8 million in pretax income, while the data and analytic solutions business contributed $10.2 million. Results in the data and analytic solutions segment were negatively affected by a pretax loss of $6.5 million in its second lien product company.