Imperial Credit Industries Inc.: The Newport Beach...

Imperial Credit Industries Inc.: The Newport Beach company’s stock rose 18% Friday after the financial service company said its affiliate, Imperial Credit Mortgage Holdings Inc., filed for a public stock offering of 4.6 million shares. Imperial Credit Industries’ stock closed Friday at $26 Friday, up $4 a share in Nasdaq trading. The Newport Beach company has diversified into small business lending, where margins are much higher than mortgage lending, said Joseph A. Jolson, an analyst with Montgomery Securities in San Francisco. “Three years ago Imperial anticipated that the mortgage lending boom would not last forever,” Jolson said. The Imperial Credit Holdings affiliate provides short-term lines of credit to mortgage banks. Imperial Credit Industries is a subsidiary of Imperial Bank.