President exits, units consolidated
By MortgageDaily.com staff
1/31/2006

A California-based subprime real estate investment trust announced it will consolidate its wholesale and retail operations in a management restructuring.

Aames Investment Corp. announced the move Monday, noting it was done "to better align its infrastructure with the current market environment."

"We believe that this consolidation of our retail and wholesale channels will not only create greater efficiency, but will also enhance our service levels and response time to customers," Chairman and Chief Executive A. Jay Meyerson said in the written statement.

As part of the restructuring, Aames President and Chief Operating Officer, John Vella, reportedly resigned to pursue other opportunities.

Michael Matthews was promoted to chief production officer and will be responsible for all of the sales and marketing efforts for the retail and wholesale channels, while James Fullen assumed the role of executive vice president-chief operations officer for retail and wholesale, with responsibility for the operational processes of both channels.

Prior to joining Aames in 2002, Matthews and Fullen held a variety of management positions with Associates First Capital.

"Given the recent growth and solid financial results that our retail channel achieved under Mike and Jim, this new channel management structure was a natural result of the continued refinement of our loan production operations," Meyerson said.

The restructuring, however, also eliminated a number of corporate overhead positions in loan production operations, Aames said.

The latest activity is the second restructuring in five years.

Aames, having not fully recovered from the bond crisis that led to a subprime sector meltdown in the late eighties, announced in November 2001 it that the New York Stock Exchange delisted its pre-REIT shares. The following January, the Los Angeles-based company said it retained UBS Warburg "to explore options for a possible restructuring of Aames' outstanding 9.125% senior notes due November 2003 and its 5.5% convertible subordinated debentures due March 2006."

MortgageDaily.com publisher, Sam Garcia, is a shareholder of Aames.

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