Growth allows CPB to again increase dividends

Central Pacific Bank’s remarkable turnaround from a near collapse six years ago keeps gaining momentum.

The state’s fourth-largest bank, fueled by its seventh straight quarter of double-digit loan growth, said it will increase its dividend for the second time in less than a year after its net income jumped 28.8 percent in the October-December period.

Central Pacific Financial Corp., holding company for the bank, reported earnings Thursday of $13.3 million, or 37 cents a share, compared with $10.3 million, or 24 cents a share, in the fourth quarter of 2013. It was the bank’s 16th straight profitable quarter following $703.1 million in losses from 2008 to 2010.

Loan growth, which has been prevalent with all of the state’s banks that have publicly reported so far this quarter, was no different at Central Pacific as its loan portfolio rose 11.5 percent to $2.9 billion from $2.6 billion in the year-earlier period.

The bank also raised its quarterly dividend by 2 cents to 12 cents a share, for an annualized yield of 2.4 percent at the current share price. It will be payable on March 16 to shareholders of record at the close of business Feb. 27.

"It was a solid quarter," Central Pacific Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Dean said ahead of the public earnings release. "It was driven by good loan and deposit growth, but it also was driven by improving market conditions.

"We feel as a team very good about ourselves and our results, and we’re optimistic going forward. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t have raised our dividend by another couple cents."

Central Pacific, which restored its dividend in the third quarter of 2013, had suspended its quarterly payout in the first quarter of 2009 to preserve capital when it received a $135 million bailout from the U.S. Treasury through its Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. The program was designed to provide stability to the financial market during the recession. The investment from the Treasury kept the bank afloat until Central Pacific was able to recapitalize itself with $345 million in February 2011 from investors and shareholders under the leadership of Dean, a turnaround specialist hired in March 2010.

For all of 2014, Central Pacific had net income of $40.5 million, or $1.07 a share, compared with 172.1 million, or $4.07 a share, in 2013 when earnings were inflated by a one-time $119.8 million tax benefit.

The bank, which had $496 million in nonperforming assets when Dean took over, continued its rapid improvement in that area. At the end of the fourth quarter, Central Pacific’s nonperforming assets — loans 90 days or more delinquent — were down to $42 million, a 10.1 percent decline from $46.8 million in the year-earlier quarter.

At the end of 2014, Central Pacific had $407 million in outstanding loans on the mainland, with $12 million delinquent. In Hawaii, the bank had $2.5 billion in loans, with $30 million delinquent.

"There’s no magic to it," Central Pacific chief risk officer Bill Wilson said about the downward trend in nonperforming assets. "We just keep working hard at trying to resolve the problem credit. The most important part of it is to limit the new problem credit. We’re resolving them one at a time by working with our customers to reach a resolution."

The bank said improving trends in credit quality prompted it to return $5.4 million to its income statement last quarter that it had set aside for potential loan losses. In the year-earlier quarter, the bank returned $1.3 million to its income statement for similar reasons.

Central Pacific also showed improvement in its net interest margin — the spread between the bank’s loan and deposit rates — which rose to 3.33 percent last quarter from 3.29 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013. Net interest income edged up 1.9 percent to $36.2 million from $35.5 million.

Deposits rose 4.4 percent to $4.1 billion from $3.9 billion while assets increased 2.4 percent to $4.9 billion from $4.7 billion.

Noninterest income, which includes service charges and fees, fell 16.1 percent to $10.2 million from $12.2 million.

Central Pacific’s stock fell 41 cents to $19.61 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.