FHB’s net falls due to 2016 securities sales

First Hawaiian Bank’s loans rose to a record high but net income fell 13.4 percent in the first quarter because of $25.7 million in securities sales made in the year-earlier period.

The bank’s new holding company, First Hawaiian Inc., said Thursday it earned $56.7 million, or 41 cents a share, compared with $65.5 million, or 47 cents a share, in the first quarter of 2016. The state’s largest bank, which had its initial public offering in August, had no securities sales last quarter.

Loans rose 7.5 percent to $11.78 billion to reach the bank’s target of mid- to high-single-digit loan growth for the year.

“We had a very good, solid quarter,” First Hawaiian Chairman and CEO Bob Harrison said in a phone interview. “There was good growth in loans and leases, expenses were maintained and credit quality was as good as we’ve seen.”

Excluding the securities sales, the bank’s core earnings in the quarter rose 11.6 percent to $57 million from $51.1 million a year ago.

First Hawaiian’s securities sales pulled down the bank’s noninterest income nearly 33 percent to $49.4 million from $73.5 million in the year-earlier period. The first quarter of 2016 included a $22.7 million net gain on the sale of Visa Class B restricted shares and a $3.1 million net gain on the sales of other securities.

Harrison said the bank is going to hold on to its remaining 120,000 Visa shares for now.

“We don’t see the need to sell it now because it trades at a discount (due to ongoing litigation with U.S. merchants),” Harrison said. “We’re going to wait until there’s better clarity and we see what’s going to happen.”

The bank’s results topped analysts’ consensus estimate of 40 cents a share.

He said expenses will increase as the bank changes into a public company from being a subsidiary of French banking giant BNP Paribas.

But he said the bank’s 47 percent efficiency ratio in the quarter is indicative of what First Hawaiian expects for the year. An efficiency ratio measures in percentages how much it costs the bank to make a dollar of revenue. So in First Hawaiian’s case, it made $1 for every 47 cents it spent.

“That’s very, very efficient,” he said. “There are very few banks under a 50 percent efficiency ratio.”

BNP Paribas, which at one time owned 100 percent of the bank, now owns just 62 percent after completing a secondary offering of shares in February. BNP is eligible to sell additional shares after a lockup period expires Monday, but has not indicated when or how many shares it might sell. BNP has said in Securities and Exchange Commission filings that it intends to sell off its remaining ownership of the bank over an unspecified period of time.

“It’s totally up to them. No decisions have been made yet,” Harrison said.

The bank’s deposits rose 5.5 percent from the year- e­arlier quarter to $16.94 billion while assets increased 3.7 percent to $19.79 billion.

First Hawaiian’s net interest income, the difference between the interest the bank pays on deposits and the interest it receives on loans, rose 10.3 percent to $129.3 million from $117.3 million. Its net interest margin improved to 3.00 percent from 2.77 percent in the year-earlier period.

Harrison also said the bank plans to relocate two of its branches — in Manoa and Liliha — to nearby sites later this year. He said construction of the Manoa branch could continue into 2018.

First Hawaiian’s stock closed down 24 cents, or 0.8 percent, at $30.29 Thursday. The financial results were announced after the market closed.