First American On Track for Business Split

As Santa Ana, Calif.-based First American Corporation (FAF) enters its 120th year in business; the company said it’s continuing its plan to split into two publicly traded companies as early as the first half of 2010. First American will break off its information solutions and financial services divisions into two separate companies. “Our decision to separate our two main businesses is an example of the kind of forward-looking decisions that have guided our company through 23 economic downturns over the past 120 years, and enabled us to produce consistent returns for investors and top-tier products and services for our customers,” said Parker Kennedy, First American chairman, CEO and great-grandson of the First American founder C.E. Parker. Financial Services earned $1.86bn in the first half of 2009 and consists of First American’s title insurance, specialty insurance and trust operations. Information Solutions earned $1.11bn during H109, and is comprised information and outsourcing solutions, data and analytics solutions, and risk mitigation and business solutions segments. Write to Austin Kilgore.