BancWest reports
quarterly earnings up
more than 22 percent

It beats Wall Street estimates
by 5 cents a share

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By Rick Daysog
rdaysog@starbulletin.com

The parent of First Hawaiian Bank today reported a 22.2 percent increase in its second quarter 2001 earnings.

BancWest Corp..'s net income rose to $65.9 million per share during the three months ending June 30, 2001, up from $53.9 million in the year-earlier quarter.

On a per-share basis, the company netted 52 cents, up from 43 cents in the year-earlier period.

The results beat out Wall Street's expectations for the quarter. Analysts surveyed by Nelson Information were predicting earnings of 47 cents per share for the recently completed period.

BancWest stock closed at $34.65 on the New York Stock Exchange today, an increase of 4 cents from yesterday's close.

"This is a remarkable quarter," said Walter Dods, BancWest's chairman and chief executive officer. "We recorded yet another double-digit increase in earnings."

For the first half of 2001, BancWest earned $127.7 million, or $1.01 per share, compared to $103.4 million, or 83 cents per share, during the first six months of 2000.

BancWest said it received an after-tax gain of $11 million from its sale shares it held in Concord EFS, which previously acquired the company's 5 percent interest in Star Systems Inc., the nation's largest PIN-secured payment network.

The report comes as BNP Paribas in May announced that it was purchasing the remaining shares of BancWest stock, in a deal valued at $2.45 billion. BNP, which already owns about 45 percent of the company, said it expected the deal to close during the third quarter this year.

BNP's offer of $35 per share represented a 40 percent premium over BancWest's stock price back in May.

Overall, BancWest said its assets, loans and deposits all increased during the second quarter. Assets increased 8.3 percent to $19.3 billion while total loans jumped 8.5 percent to $14.5 billion. Deposits were up 8.2 percent to $14.6 billion.

On the credit side, the bank said it increased it its provisions for losses by $6.9 million to $23.3 million during the second quarter. For the first half, the bank increased its provisions for credit losses by $29.2 million to $58.4 million.