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New York-The Los Angeles-based Imperial Bancorp has rejected a proprosal by insurance company Leucadia National Corp. here to purchase a 24.3% stake in Imperial Bancorp's Imperial Credit Industries Inc. affiliate.
While the statement from Imperial Bancorp did not discuss the reasons, a statement issued by ICI quotes its chairman and chief executive H. Wayne Snavely as saying that Leucadia wanted to take a controlling interest in ICI and not merely acquire Imperial's shares.
"Now is not the time to redeem our shareholder rights plan or in any other way accommodate a new investor's acquisition of a control position in our stock at current prices," Mr. Snavely said. Leucadia did not return a request for comment.
The insurance company offered to pay $9.25 per share for the Imperial Bancorp stake. On March 30, ICI, whose remaining stock is publicly traded, closed at approximately $7.91 per share.
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