Exhibit
99.1
Contact:
|
Guillermo
Bron
Chairman
of the Board
United
PanAm Financial Corp.
Tel:
949.224.1288
e-mail:
akhazei@upfc.com
|
UNITED
PANAM FINANCIAL CORP. ANNOUNCES
APPOINTMENT
OF CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Irvine,
California - July 29, 2008 - United PanAm Financial Corp. (Nasdaq: UPFC) and
its
subsidiaries announced today the appointment of Jim Vagim as chief executive
officer of UPFC, and announced the termination of Ray Thousand as chief
executive officer and Stacy Friederichsen as chief operating officer all
effective as of July 25, 2008.
Mr.
Vagim
was formerly President of Westlake Financial, a non-prime automobile finance
company of similar size to UPFC, where Mr. Vagim spent more than 20 years in
various executive positions until his resignation in 2007.
Guillermo
Bron, the Chairman of the Board, stated, “We want to recognize and thank Mr.
Thousand for the contributions and accomplishments during his tenure as our
chief executive officer and for assembling an outstanding management team.” Mr.
Bron also stated, “UPFC is restructuring its staffing at this time and does not
intend hire a replacement chief operating officer.”
The
termination of Mr. Thousand could adversely affect UPFC’s warehouse line of
credit with Deutsche Bank and UPFC’s six outstanding securitizations. Unless
Deutsche Bank approves the appointment of Mr. Vagim as the replacement chief
executive officer, it could exercise its rights to terminate the warehouse
line
of credit and declare all amounts owed under UPFC’s warehouse facility as
immediately due and payable. Additionally, unless Mr. Vagim is approved by
the
various insurance providers that insure UPFC’s six outstanding securitizations,
the termination of Mr. Thousand is a potential insurance event of default and
each insurance provider may elect to enforce the various rights and remedies
that are governed by the different transaction documents for each
securitization. UPFC is in the process of obtaining approval of Mr. Vagim as
UPFC’s chief executive officer from Deutsche Bank and the insurance
providers, but there is no assurance UPFC will obtain such approvals.
UPFC
is a
specialty finance company engaged in automobile finance, which includes the
purchasing, warehousing, securitizing and servicing of automobile installment
sales contracts originated by independent and franchised dealers of used
automobiles. UPFC conducts its automobile finance business through its
wholly-owned subsidiary, United Auto Credit Corporation, with branch offices
in
36 states.
Forward
Looking Statements
This
press release may contain forward-looking statements as referenced in the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements
are
inherently unreliable and actual results may vary. Factors which could cause
actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements include changes
in the competitive marketplace, changes in the interest rate environment,
economic conditions, outcome of pending litigation, risks associated with credit
quality and other factors discussed in the company’s filings with the Securities
and Exchange Commission. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update
or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise.
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