Freedom Financial stockholders approve sale, dissolution

A Springfield-based consumer finance company has taken one of the last steps toward shutting down its operations.

At a special stockholder's meeting Tuesday, about two-thirds of shareholders of Freedom Financial Group Inc. (OTC: FFGR) voted in favor of selling all of the company's assets to South Carolina-based American Credit Acceptance LLC for more than $14.6 million.

The vote follows a decision by ReMark Lending Co. not to renew or extend a $15 million loan secured by the company in January 2008. Freedom Financial consequently stopped purchasing auto receivable notes in late September and began looking for buyers for its $19 million auto loan portfolio, according to previous Springfield Business Journal coverage.

At the Tuesday meeting in Springfield, shareholders also voted to dissolve the company and liquidate its assets to pay the $9.5 million it still owes ReMark. The remaining proceeds will be distributed to shareholders, who are expected to receive between 17 cents and 21 cents per share.

Freedom Financial had originally agreed to sell its assets to Houston, Texas-based First Investors Financial Services Inc., but Freedom Financial terminated that agreement in late October when American Credit came forward with a more lucrative purchase offer.

"I am very disappointed that, during a period when the company was performing well and providing needed credit to used car dealers, ... we were not able to locate a commercial bank or other lender willing to support the company so that it could continue as a going concern," President and CEO Jerry Fenstermaker said in a news release.

Freedom Financial was created in January 2003 through the bankruptcy reorganization of its predecessor, Stevens Financial Group.

Most of the company's stockholders are holdovers from Stevens Financial, whose owner Clarence Stevens was sentenced in late 2004 to five years in prison after conviction on charges of securities fraud and related offenses. Stevens purchased the company from Damian Sinclair, who also faced similar charges but died in December 2003 before he was able to stand trial.[[In-content Ad]]