iStar Financial Incorporated (SFI)

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UPDATE 2-iStar posts wider-than-expected Q2 loss; shares fall

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iStar Financial Inc.
SFI.N
$4.72
-0.50-9.58%9:09am EDT
Tue Aug 3, 2010 10:47am EDT

* Q2 adj loss/shr $0.89 vs loss/shr $0.30

* Gain from sale of CTL portfolio $250.3 mln

* Net investment income down 53 pct

* Loan-loss provision $109.4 mln vs $435 mln

* Shares down 16 pct (Recasts; adds details, share movement)

Aug 3 (Reuters) - U.S. commercial real estate lender iStar Financial Inc (SFI.N) posted a wider-than-expected adjusted second-quarter loss, hurt by a drop in interest income, sending its shares down 16 percent. For the second quarter, net income allocable to common shareholders was $212.3 million, or $2.27 a share, compared with a year-ago loss of $284.2 million, or $2.85 a share.

Excluding the $250.3 million gain on the sale of a corporate tenant lease (CTL) portfolio sale, the company posted a loss of 89 cents a share.

Analysts on average were expecting iStar to post a loss of 30 cents a share, excluding items, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Quarterly revenue fell more than 29 percent to $136.8 million, hurt mainly by a drop in interest income as performing loans moved to non-performing status.

Interest income fell 39 percent to $86.5 million.

Net investment income more than halved to $129.8 million.

Provision for loan losses fell to $109.4 million from $435 million.

As of June 30, the company had $531.5 million of cash, compared with $640.9 million in the first quarter.

The company completed the sale of a portfolio of 32 CTL properties for $1.33 billion, it said.

Shares of the company were down 13 percent at $4.54 in morning trade Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. They touched a low of $4.41 in early trade. (Reporting by Archana Shankar in Bangalore; Editing by Don Sebastian, Unnikrishnan Nair)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idCNSGE6720IJ20100803?rpc=44

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