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Bankoh parent Pacific Century Financial Corp. today announced the appointment of a chief risk officer to carry out Chairman Michael E. O'Neill's promise to improve the company's credit.
taps two top execs
The ex-Bank of America officials
CEO's new holdings thriving
are expected to help shore
up the company's creditBy Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin
The new appointee, William Nelson, was also given the title of vice chair and was appointed to the company's seven-member managing committee, making him clearly a top officer. Nelson, who like O'Neill held significant posts with Bank of America, will report directly to O'Neill.
Pacific Century, the $13.9 billion parent of Bank of Hawaii, also appointed another former Bank of America executive, Scott Miller, as director of asset recovery. Miller is an expert in avoiding excessive write-offs by recovering bad loans, the company said.
Analysts welcomed the appointments, saying O'Neill is doing just what he said he would do when he joined Pacific Century in early November, strengthening the bank's management and its credit problems.
"Clearly O'Neill is adding strength to the management team by bringing in former Bank of America talent which he has worked with and knows their capabilities," said Robert Patten, an analyst with UBS Warburg in New York.
He said O'Neill, who is also the company's CEO, is looking for stability in management and in its risk profile.
O'Neill acknowledged when he was hired that the company's credit image was a major reason for Pacific Century's poor performance in the stock market and he vowed to turn it around quickly. At the end of the third quarter, prior to O'Neill's appointment, the company had nonperforming assets of $220 million, up from $155 million at the same time in the previous year.
Analyst Eric Rothmann of First Security Van Kasper in San Francisco noted that O'Neill is moving to increase the value of the stock. "It does speak exactly to what we anticipated him to do, bring aboard several people who can help bring the value of the shares in line with the market," Rothmann said of today's announcement.
Rothmann said even though Bankoh's stock has rebound significantly recently, "there is still significant potential for the upside." His firm still expects Bankoh's stock to rise to as much as $23 over the 12 months.
Bankoh's stock closed today unchanged at $17.75 on the New York Stock Exchange. It has risen 58 percent since hitting a closing low of $11.25 on Oct. 27.
Nelson, the top appointee in today's announcement, had 24 years with Bank of America in a range of worldwide financial risk management positions and most recently was managing director of the bank's office in Charlotte, North Carolina. There, he was in charge of a credit products group handling the U.S. health care industry. Nelson also worked for Bank of America risk management operations in Hong Kong for six years.
Miller was president of Heller Commercial Services, which was part of Heller Financial Inc. in Chicago. Before that he had five years at Bank of America in Los Angeles, where he was senior vice president and general manager of middle-market asset-based lending.
Pacific Century Financial Corp. Chairman and CEO Michael O'Neill has gained about 19 percent on his investment by fulfilling his vow to buy $10 million of the company's stock. CEO’s new
holdings up $2 milStar-Bulletin staff
According to insider-trading disclosures reported by Yahoo Finance, O'Neill has bought a total of 676,700 shares in 10 separate purchases from Nov. 6, the first trading day after his appointment, through Nov. 17, at prices ranging from $14 a share to $15.25 a share.
O'Neill spent just over $10 million to buy the stock at an average price of $14.80 a share, according to the disclosures. At today's closing price of $17.75, that holding was worth just more than $12 million for a paper gain of about 20 percent.
When his appointment was announced on Nov. 3, O'Neill said he would show his confidence in the banking company by investing $10 million of his own money in Pacific Century stock.