Co--Founder of Onyx Acceptance Stepping Down

IRVINE —  Onyx Acceptance Corp. said Thursday that co-founder Brian MacInnis has resigned as chief executive of the automotive finance company and as a member of its board of directors.

He has been replaced by company president John Hall.

MacInnis, who helped start the company three years ago, said he had decided to move his family to the Southeast to pursue personal interests.

Onyx also announced Thursday the successful completion of an offering of securities backed by $120 million worth of automobile receivables. It was the company’s third auto-loan-backed securities sale of the year and the first to include loans originated in the company’s Washington and Arizona offices. The offering was managed by Merrill Lynch & Co.

Onyx finances and services auto installment purchase contracts originated by used-car dealerships in California, Washington, Arizona and Nevada.

Like a real estate mortgage broker, the company bundles its contracts and sells them to investors who want to capture the profits from the interest rates--which averaged more than 14% in the most recent offering. The company profits both from the bulk sale and from service fees it collects for processing consumers’ loan payments.

The company went public in March at $12.25 per share and the stock rose to a high of $19 in May before retreating. It closed Thursday at $12.25 a share, up 25 cents for the day, on the Nasdaq market.