Home Builder M.D.C. Buys Million Shares of Imperial Corp.

SAN DIEGO — M.D.C. Holdings Inc., a Denver-based home builder that also operates a small mortgage banking business, has acquired 1 million shares, or about 6.9%, of Imperial Corp. of America’s outstanding shares, ICA said Thursday.

The home builder’s stock acquisition was made for “investment purposes,” according to M.D.C. Vice President Mike Feinstein. However, in a filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, M.D.C. indicated that it “might alter its intentions including, without limitation, acquiring additional shares or disposing of any shares.”

ICA declined to comment on M.D.C.’s stock purchases, although the company knew that its new shareholder began buying stock in August. The total amount paid by M.D.C. for the shares was unavailable late Thursday afternoon.

ICA, with about $10 billion in assets, owns San Diego-based Imperial Savings Assn., a California-licensed savings and loan with 89 branch offices in California. Its stock, which traded at a high of $19.625 in the last year, closed up $.25 at $10.375 Thursday.

M.D.C. is now ICA’s third-largest shareholder, behind New York-based Executive Life Insurance, which holds about 9.6% of ICA’s stock. New York-based Tamco Financial Corp. holds about 9.5% of ICA’s stock.

Listed on the New York Stock Exchange, M.D.C. “has a history of making investments (in S&Ls;),” Feinstein said. “At one point, we owned an interest in (Newport Beach-based) Far West Financial Corp., and at another time we owned an interest in (Denver-based) First Columbia National.”

M.D.C. reported a $35.7-million profit and $706 million in 1986 revenue. Most of M.D.C.’s revenue is generated by new home construction in Colorado, California and other Western states, according to Feinstein, who described the company as “one of the nation’s five largest home builders.”

M.D.C.’s Denver-based American Home Mortgage Co. operation, which has several offices in California, generated about 10% of that revenue stream.

The company operates in California through its Richmond American Homes subsidiary, which builds homes in the Los Angeles and Sacramento areas, Feinstein said.