Shares of Irvine-based New Century Financial Corp. continued to take a beating on Friday, with the company’s value down 40% in two days after disclosing a string of bad news midweek.
New Century’s has lost nearly $650 million in market value in the past two days, and now stands at about $950 million, the lowest point in more than three years.
On Friday, New Century’s shares were off nearly 10%, on top of a 30% decline on Thursday.
The country’s second largest lender to borrowers with imperfect credit, New Century said late Wednesday that it expected a loss for the recently ended quarter, instead of a profit expected by Wall Street.
It also projected a big drop in loans this year and said some 2006 results will be restated to fix accounting errors.
New Century’s woes were compounded by similarly negative news coming from the industry’s biggest maker of loans to borrowers with imperfect credit, HSBC Holdings PLC of London.
HSBC said it was revising its loan loss provisions for 2006 by 20% to $10.6 billion, to account for losses on loans it bought back from investors because of payment defaults.
Similar troubles are impacting New Century.
The company said growing defaults by borrowers in the fourth quarter are expected to drive a loss for the period.
New Century delayed fourth-quarter results, which were due Thursday.
For 2007, New Century said it expects to fund 20% fewer loans from the $59.8 billion it did in 2006. The company’s prior estimate predicted flat loan volume.
For the first three quarters of 2006, New Century said it plans to restate financial results to fix accounting errors. The errors relate to how New Century accounted for losses on loans it bought back from investors because of defaults.
The company expects the restatements to result in lower profits.
The troubles facing New Century and others made front-page news in the Wall Street Journal on Friday. The first shareholder lawsuit against New Century was announced earlier Friday.
