Fidelity National Financial, an Irvine title insurance...

Fidelity National Financial, an Irvine title insurance company, has sold its interest in three small branch operations in Northern California and sold controlling interest in five others for a total of $1.86 million. The sale, which also includes two office buildings, will give the firm a pre-tax gain of $493,000. The branch operations were part of the Western Title Insurance firm that Fidelity National bought in November. William P. Foley II, Fidelity’s president, said the company wanted to reduce its personnel expenses and the burden of supervising smaller and remote operations. The company retained a 20% interest in the operations in Yuba and Sutter counties, which were sold to Joseph Benatar, its manager in Marysville. It retained a 40% interest in the operations in Madera, Tulare and Tuolumne counties, which were sold to Ronald Peterson, its Visalia manager. The company sold its entire interest in operations in Lassen, Plumas and Tehama counties to Barry Johnson of Redding, who maintains other title insurance businesses. Fidelity operates title firms in 29 states in the South and the West.