City Bank parent’s
net up 15.2%

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

CB Bancshares Inc., the parent company of City Bank, today reported a 15.2 percent increase in its first-quarter profit, to $2.8 million from $2.43 million in the year-earlier quarter. Per-share earnings of 83 cents were up 10.7 percent from 75 cents.

At the end of the quarter, the company had assets of $1.73 billion, up 4.9 percent from $1.65 billion during the same period in 2000. Loans of $1.31 billion were up 9.1 percent from $1.2 billion and deposits of $1.26 billion were up 10 percent from $1.14 billion.

The growth in loans boosted the company's net interest income by 3.3 percent, to $15.8 million from a year-earlier $15.3 million, but the company said interest income for the year-earlier quarter had been boosted by a $480,000 interest recovery from a nonperforming loan. Taking out that unusual item results in a 6.9 percent increase in net interest income.

Non-interest income jumped 81.6 percent, to $3.1 million in the latest quarter from a year-earlier $1.7 million. The gain came after a $409,000 increase in service fees and charges and a $387,000 gain on the sale of securities in the latest quarter (compared to a securities-sale loss of $437,000 in the 2000 quarter).

The company said it had nonperforming loans of $17.4 million on March 31 this year, up 32.9 percent from $13.1 million a year earlier, due to a rise in commercial loans that were declared nonperforming. Partially offsetting the commercial increase was a decline in nonperforming loans in residential real estate.

Nonperforming assets of $20.1 million this year were up 6.7 percent from $18.9 million a year earlier.

CB Bancshares said it increased its provision for credit losses by 47.4 percent, to $2.8 million, from $1.9 million in the 2000 quarter.