Central Pacific
parent’s profit up 42%

CPB posts its 11th straight record
quarter amid a change in leadership

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Star-Bulletin staff

CPB Inc., the parent of Central Pacific Bank, today reported a 42 percent increase in first-quarter earnings, a profit of $7.5 million, or 93 cents a share, compared to $5.3 million or 62 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.

First-quarter revenues grew 12 percent to $25.2 million, from $22.6 million in the year-earlier quarter. Net interest income grew 13 percent to $21.3 million, from a year-earlier $18.9 million. CPB said a 48 percent decline in interest expense more than offset a 15 percent decrease in interest income.

"The strong quarterly results were achieved despite the events of Sept. 11, which adversely affected the state economy," said Clinton L. Arnoldus, CPB president. He said the Hawaii economy is now showing "unexpected but welcomed resilience."

The earnings represented the 11th straight quarter of record earnings when normalizing the prior two quarter to exclude a nonrecurring tax credit.

Total assets as of March 31 were up 5 percent at $1.9 billion, from a year-earlier $1.8 billion. Total loans grew 3 percent to $1.3 billion from $1.2 billion and total deposits of $1.5 billion were up 7 percent from $1.4 billion.

CPB said its provision for loan losses declined to $300,000 in the latest quarter, from a year-earlier $750,000.

Neal Kanda, vice president and treasurer, said the cut was made possible through an improvement in the quality of the bank's assets and a better outlook for the Hawaii economy.

At its annual shareholders' meeting today, CPB planned to elect Arnoldus, who joined the company in January as president, to the additional positions of chairman and chairman and chief executive officer, replacing Joichi Saito, who is retiring.

Before joining CPB, Arnoldus was chairman, president and CEO of Community Bank, a $1.3 billion commercial bank based in Pasadena, Calif. He was chosen after an 18-month local and national executive search.

CPB stock, which has been the top performer this year in the Bloomberg Honolulu Star-Bulletin Index with a gain of 31.1 percent, fell 21 cents today to $38.55. Central Pacific Bank is Hawaii's third-largest commercial bank with 24 branches statewide, including six supermarket branches.