Loans, deposits lift American Savings to earnings growth

American Savings Bank’s earnings jumped 23.4 percent in the fourth quarter as it continued to produce solid loan and deposit growth while waiting to find out whether parent Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. will be acquired by a Florida utility.

The state’s third-largest bank reported Friday that it had net income of $15 million compared with $12.1 million in the year- earlier quarter. Loans rose 4 percent to $4.57 billion while deposits grew 8.7 percent to $5.03 billion. Assets increased 8.1 percent to $6 billion.

For the year, American Savings’ earnings rose 6.7 percent to $54.7 million from $51.3 million in 2014.

HEI, whose proposed $4.3 billion sale to NextEra Energy is being examined by the state Public Utilities Commission, is scheduled to report its earnings Feb. 11. American Savings would become a stand-alone bank if the PUC approves the deal. HEI’s stock closed up $1.37, or 4.8 percent, at $29.92 Friday. The earnings were announced after the market closed.

American Savings President and CEO Richard Wacker said the bank’s day-to-day operations have been unaffected by the pending spinoff.

“It’s really only a factor for the people who are preparing the spinoff,” Wacker said. “From the point of view of the banking business and the customers, it has no effect, and a spinoff would be relatively invisible for them. We’re just working through all the preparations so when the decision comes down, we’re ready and able to go.”

Wacker also said the bank’s unbuilt new headquarters, which is not related to the spinoff of the bank, is “fairly close” to proceeding. American Savings plans to relocate its downtown headquarters to a 62,595-square-foot public parking lot at 300 N. Beretania St. in Chinatown, across the street from Aala Park.

“We’re still going through the final contractor negotiations but progressing,” he said. “We’re in that final process.”

Wacker said the bank’s latest quarter proceeded as expected.

“We’re happy with it,” he said. “It was a good quarter for loan growth, deposit growth and asset quality. We’re very much in line with where we said we would be, and in addition, we’re moving forward with our strategic priorities, like the spinoff. So we’re very happy with how the quarter went.”

American Savings said its loan growth primarily was driven by commercial real estate, residential mortgages and home equity lending that helped to offset the effect of the decline in net interest margin.

The bank’s net interest income, the difference between interest earned on loans/securities and what is paid out on deposits, rose 4.3 percent to $48.7 million from $46.7 million. Its net interest margin, the spread between loans/securities and deposits, worsened to 3.55 percent from 3.65 percent.

American Savings’ noninterest income, which includes service charges and fees, increased 10.2 percent to $16.8 million from $15.3 million.

The bank’s net income also benefited by less money it set aside for potential losses than the year-earlier quarter. American Savings took a loan-loss provision of $839,000 in the fourth quarter compared with $2.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2014. The lower fourth-quarter provision in 2015 was attributable to the recovery of previously charged-off loans.

Wacker said he’s optimistic about this year for the bank despite the global uncertainty.

“We continue to see a favorable environment for the state,” he said. “Everything’s challenging because of what’s happening around the world, but so far the expectations that UHERO (University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization) sees for tourism, and what we know is happening in construction, seems favorable for the state economy, and I think the bank will continue to operate well in that environment. We expect to be able to grow at the same levels that we’ve targeted and continue to grow profits as well.”