https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/09/business/lomas-to-sell-credit-card-bank-operation.html

Lomas to Sell Credit Card Bank Operation
By THOMAS C. HAYES and SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES

The Lomas Financial Corporation said today that it had agreed to sell its credit card bank subsidiary for $500 million in cash and preferred stock to an investor group led by Merrill Lynch Capital Partners. The price is the highest ever paid for a credit card business.

Heavy debt, protracted losses in Texas real estate and rising interest costs earlier this year left Lomas pressed for cash. The company said the sale of the unit would reduce its debt by $1.7 billion, to $3.9 billion, just below the goal of $4 billion set by Lomas's chief executive, Jess Hay. The deal will remove $1.3 billion of the unit's outstanding debt from Lomas's books, and Lomas plans to use about $400 million of the proceeds to further reduce debt.

Some analysts said Mr. Hay was negotiating to sell Lomas's profitable leasing unit and would use money from that sale to shop for some of the mortgage-servicing operations that are being sold by troubled savings institutions. Lomas owns a large and profitable mortgage-servicing company with a $21 billion portfolio. Hint of Another Deal