Far West Shareholders Approve Stock Increase

Shareholders of Far West Financial Corp., the Irvine holding company for Far West Savings & Loan Assn., approved an increase of 33 million authorized shares of common and preferred stock at the annual meeting Wednesday.

The number of authorized common shares rose to 30 million shares from 5 million and the number of authorized preferred stock rose to 10 million from 2 million. The increase allowed the directors to declare a 3-for-1 stock split at a board meeting after the annual meeting.

The stock split, which was previously announced, will be distributed May 30 to holders of record on May 12. The company now has nearly 2.8 million shares of common stock outstanding and will have more than 11.1 shares outstanding after the split. There is no outstanding preferred stock.