Wilshire Bancorp, Inc (WIBC)

[Enterprising Investor]

WIBC Reports Net Income of $15.2 Million or $0.21 Earnings per Share for Fourth Quarter 2012 (1/23/13)

LOS ANGELES, Jan 23, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE via COMTEX) -- Wilshire Bancorp, Inc. (the "Company"), the holding company for Wilshire State Bank (the "Bank"), today reported net income available to common shareholders of $15.2 million, or $0.21 per diluted common share, for the quarter ended December 31, 2012. This compares to net income available to common shareholders of $5.8 million, or $0.08 per common share, for the same period of the prior year, and net income of $38.5 million, or $0.54 per common share, for the third quarter of 2012. The increase in net income from the fourth quarter of 2011 is primarily attributable to a $12.0 million negative provision for losses on loans and loan commitments. The decline in net income from the third quarter of 2012 is primarily attributable to the return to a normalized tax provision.

For the full year 2012, the Company reported net income available to common shareholders of $93.7 million, or $1.31 per diluted common share, compared with a net loss of $34.0 million, or ($0.61) per share, for the full year 2011.

Jae Whan (J.W.) Yoo, President and CEO of Wilshire Bancorp, said, "We ended 2012 with another strong quarter, which contributed to the most profitable year in the history of the Company. Our new business development efforts continue to gain momentum, as we had $264 million in loan originations during the fourth quarter, which represents our highest level of loan production in several years. At the same time, our credit quality continues to show strong improvement with non-covered non-accrual loans declining by 32% from the end of the prior quarter. This improvement reflects our effective management of problem assets, which is resulting in a steady migration of non-accrual loans back to accrual status and the continued pay-down of outstanding problem loans.

"As we begin 2013, we are optimistic that we will continue to generate solid profitability. We expect to continue seeing good demand for CRE loans, and we believe the investments we have made to build our commercial, SBA, and residential real estate lending businesses will continue to generate strong loan production this year. In addition, we continue to have a significant amount of excess capital that we can utilize to create additional value for shareholders going forward," said Mr. Yoo.

Q4 2012 Summary:

-- Net income available to common shareholders of $15.2 million or $0.21 per diluted share

-- Loans receivable totaled $2.01 billion at December 31, 2012, an increase of 3.0% from $1.95 billion at September 30, 2012

-- Loan originations for the fourth quarter of 2012 totaled $264.4 million, compared to total loan originations of $209.2 million for the third quarter of 2012

-- Improved deposit mix with non-interest-bearing demand deposits increasing to 27.0% of total deposits at December 31, 2012 from 24.8% at September 30, 2012

-- Non-covered non-accrual loans declined 31.7% and non-covered delinquencies declined 56.8% from end of prior quarter

-- Non-covered classified and criticized loans declined 4.7% and 12.6%, respectively, from Q3 2012 to Q4 2012

-- Improved credit quality and reduced gross charge-offs resulted in a $12.0 million negative provision for losses on loans and loan commitments for Q4 2012

STATEMENT OF OPERATIONS

Net Interest Income and Margin

Net interest income before credit for losses on loans and loan commitments totaled $25.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2012, an increase of 1.6% from $25.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2011, and unchanged from the third quarter of 2012. The increase from the prior year was primarily due to a decline in interest expense on both deposits and borrowings.

Net interest margin was 4.33% for the fourth quarter of 2012, compared to 4.17% in the fourth quarter of 2011, and 4.35% for the third quarter of 2012. The decrease in net interest margin from the third quarter of 2012 was primarily due to lower yields on loans, partially offset by a reduction in the cost of deposits and a reduction in interest earning cash at the Federal Reserve Bank.

Loan yields decreased to 5.54% for the fourth quarter of 2012 from 5.73% for the third quarter of 2012 due to the large amount of loans that were originated at rates that were lower than that of the existing portfolio, due to the low interest rate environment and competitive landscape within the banking industry. The total cost of interest-bearing deposits declined to 0.79% for the fourth quarter of 2012, down from 0.87% for the third quarter of 2012. Cost of total deposits was reduced to 0.59% for the fourth quarter of 2012, compared to 0.66% during the previous quarter. The reduction in deposit rates was a result of declines in deposit costs across all categories combined with an increase in demand deposits as a percentage of total deposits.

Non-Interest Income

Total non-interest income was $6.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2012, compared to $5.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2011, and $6.6 million for third quarter of 2012. The major categories of non-interest income in the fourth quarter of 2012 were relatively unchanged from the prior quarter. Other non-interest income for the fourth quarter of 2012 slightly increased compared to prior quarters due to an increase in loan servicing income.

The $1.2 million in net gains on sales of loans recognized in the fourth quarter of 2012 represents $1.1 million in gains from the sale of SBA loans, and $84 thousand in gains from the sale of mortgage and other loans.

Non-Interest Expense

Total non-interest expense was $20.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2012, compared with $16.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2011, and $18.3 million for the third quarter of 2012. The increase in total non-interest expense for the fourth quarter of 2012 compared to prior quarters was primarily due to a higher impairment charge against the FDIC indemnification asset.

During the fourth quarter of 2012, the Company recorded an additional impairment of the FDIC indemnification asset amounting to $3.9 million. The impairment reflected the continuing overall improved credit quality in the covered loan portfolio. The FDIC indemnification asset balance at December 31, 2012, after reflecting the impairment charge of $3.9 million, was $5.4 million.

Total salaries and employee benefits expense was $7.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2012, compared with $7.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, and $9.4 million in the third quarter of 2012. The decrease from the prior quarter was primarily due to a reduction in bonus accruals recorded during the fourth quarter of 2012. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2011, salaries and benefits for the fourth quarter of 2012 increased primarily due to an increase in the number of employees.

Other non-interest expense for the fourth quarter of 2012 totaled $6.2 million, compared with $6.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, and $4.4 million for the third quarter of 2012. The increase from the prior quarter was primarily attributable to increased professional fees and other loan expenses.

The Company's operating efficiency ratio was 64.1% for the fourth quarter of 2012, compared with 52.4% for the fourth quarter of 2011 and 57.0% for the third quarter of 2012. The increase in efficiency ratio for the fourth quarter of 2012 compared to prior quarters is largely due to the $3.9 million impairment charge on the FDIC indemnification asset and the increase in other non-interest expense.

Tax Provision

For the fourth quarter of 2012, the Company recorded a provision for income taxes totaling $8.4 million, reflecting an effective tax rate of 35.6%. This reflects the Company's return to a more normalized effective tax rate following several quarters of recording no tax provision or a tax benefit due to the reversal of the valuation allowance that had been established against the Company's deferred tax asset.

BALANCE SHEET

Total gross loans, including loans held-for-sale, were $2.16 billion at December 31, 2012, compared to $2.09 billion at September 30, 2012. The increase in total gross loans during the fourth quarter of 2012 was primarily due to the increase in loan originations during the quarter.

As previously disclosed, upon acquiring certain assets and liabilities of the former Mirae Bank, the Company entered into a loss sharing agreement with the FDIC whereby the FDIC has agreed to share in losses on assets covered under the agreement. The assets covered by the loss sharing agreement include loans and foreclosed loan collateral existing on June 26, 2009 and acquired from Mirae Bank. As a result, loans acquired through the acquisition of Mirae Bank are identified as "covered" loans, and those that were originated at Wilshire are "non-covered" loans or "legacy Wilshire" loans.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wilshire-bancorp-reports-net-income-of-152-million-or-021-earnings-per-share-for-fourth-quarter-2012-2013-01-23