Central Pacific
Bank parent logs
another record quarter

Star-Bulletin Staff

CPB Inc., parent of Central Pacific Bank, today reported its seventh consecutive quarter of record earnings, showing a first-quarter profit of $5.3 million, up 15.2 percent from $4.6 million from the same quarter in 2000.

Per-share income of 63 cents in the latest quarter was up 26 percent from 50 cents a year earlier. In between, a share buy-back program reduced the outstanding shares by about 9 percent.

CPB increased its quarterly dividend by 6.7 percent, to 16 cents a share from the 15 cents declared for the first quarter of last year.

Joichi Saito, board chairman and chief executive officer, attributed the earnings growth to improvement in the quality of the company's assets, combined with reduced operating expenses.

CPB ended the latest quarter with assets of $1.77 billion, up 9 percent from a year-earlier $1.63 billion; net loans of $1.22 billion, up 4.6 percent from $1.16 billion; and deposits of $1.38 billion, up 5.5 percent from $1.31 billion.

Net interest income of $9.9 million in the latest quarter was up 15.5 percent from $17 million in the year-earlier quarter.

CPB said it reduced its non-performing assets by 35 percent, to $7.1 million on March 31 from $11 million a year earlier. Loans delinquent 90 days or more were down 55 percent, at $605,000 from $1.4 million.