BANKING / FINANCE : Canadian Firm Backs Away From Earlier Interest in Buying Lincoln

A Canadian firm that once expressed an interest in buying Lincoln Savings & Loan has put the matter on a back burner.

Peter Cole, president and chief executive of Central Capital Corp. in Toronto, said his company has no “current” plans to acquire the insolvent Irvine institution, which was seized by regulators on April 14.

A Central Capital subsidiary, Central Guaranty Trust Co. in Halifax, Nova Scotia, was identified in court documents in June as the company that had sent a proposal to federal regulators seeking federal assistance to purchase Lincoln.

Regulators said the proposal, made soon after the takeover, was a detailed offer to buy Lincoln. But Cole said in a press conference Tuesday that the letter “wasn’t an overture” but only “a way of putting ourselves forward as someone who should be remembered” by regulators if they were looking for a buyer to rescue Lincoln.

Last month, regulators said they considered the Canadian firm a strong candidate to buy Lincoln. But Cole passed the matter off Tuesday as “a file item that could be opened, but at the moment, we aren’t giving it priority.”