Merced, California, January 24, 2006-Capital Corp of the West (NASDAQ:NMS:CCOW), the holding company for County Bank, Central California’s Community Bank, today announced net income of $20,954,000 or $1.94 per fully diluted share for the year ended December 31, 2005, a 70% increase over 2004 net income of $12,323,000 or $1.15 per fully diluted share. Net income for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2005 was $5,387,000 or $0.49 per fully diluted share compared to 2004 fourth quarter net income of $816,000 or $0.08 per fully diluted share.
2004 net income had been impacted by two charges to earnings announced on December 27, 2004 that totaled $3,380,000, aftertax. The first charge was a $2,151,000, net of tax, reduction related to other-than-temporarily-impaired securities (OTTI). The second charge was a $1,229,000 reduction related to a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) consent dividend deduction available to California banks for the tax years 2001 and 2002. Without these two adjustments, full year 2004 net income would have been $15,703,000 or $1.46 per fully diluted share and 2005 net income would have increased 33% on a year to year basis over the full year 2004 net income.
Additionally, as announced in a separate press release today, the Board of CCOW, declared a $.05 per share quarterly cash dividend for shareholders of record February 7, 2006, payable February 28, 2006.
“2005 was an extraordinary year for us, with end of the year loan growth being particularly strong. We grew total assets 21%, total loans 21%, and total deposits 22%, while at the same time providing an 18.5% Return On Equity to our shareholders”, stated Chief Executive Officer, Tom Hawker. “During the year we continued to establish County Bank as the superior provider of expanded services to the customers and communities that we serve. In the 2005 year we opened our 5th Fresno area branch and our first Sacramento branch. The Central Valley of California experienced strong economic growth during the year and existing forecasts are for this robust environment to continue into the foreseeable future”.
“Our strategic plan calls for capitalizing on this projected economic expansion in the Central Valley by accelerating the build out of our branch network, continuing to position County Bank as the dominant community bank in the Central Valley. Our 2005 results reflect the fact that we only opened two new branches during the latter part of the year. New branches, while a temporary drain on financial performance, are in the best long term interests of the bank, its customers and its shareholders. Additional branches allow us to increase our deposit base and our heightened branch presence throughout the communities we serve and helps define our position as a first choice lender,” continued Mr. Hawker. “Our current plan calls for the opening of up to four new branches in 2006.”
“Earnings per fully diluted share (EPS) for the full year were $1.94 and are within our $1.94 to $1.98 guidance range provided at the end of the third quarter 2005. Although, in total, the $42 million in loan growth this quarter exceeded our expectations, a significant majority of this growth came near the very end of the fourth quarter and as a result the corresponding quarterly average loans and related income was slightly less than anticipated”, stated Chief Financial Officer, R. Dale McKinney.
“CCOW has clearly benefited from the rising interest rate environment of 2005 in that our margin of 4.69% is 20 basis points higher that the 4.49% reported margin for the year 2004. But, in a flat rate environment, it is likely that some margin compression will occur as average rates paid on deposits will continue to rise due to normal repricing.”
“A very strong contributor to our 2005 success is that nonperforming assets declined significantly from 0.31% of total assets at the end of 2004 to currently just 0.11% of total assets at the end of 2005,” continued Mr. McKinney. “Our provision for loan losses in 2005 was reduced by $680,000 compared to 2004, while at the same time our gross loans grew more than $183 million, or 21%, over 2004. Even though we achieved a 21% growth in total assets, noninterest expense growth was limited to only 13%, with a resulting improvement in our efficiency ratio, now at 56% for the full year 2005. Also, a cornerstone to our franchise and margin strength has been our ability to internally fund our loan growth with a $250 million, or 22%, increase in relatively low cost deposits for the 2005 year over 2004.”
Earnings Discussion
Net earnings were $5,387,000 or $0.49 per diluted share for the three months ended December 31, 2005. This compares to earnings of $816,000 or $0.08 per share for the same period in 2004. Annualized return on average assets and return on average equity were 1.33% and 17.93% for the fourth quarter of 2005 compared with 0.23% and 3.16% for same period in 2004.
The 2005 fourth quarter earnings of $5,387,000 reflect a year over year increase in earnings of $4,571,000 due primarily to the two earnings charges recorded in 2004 and a $3,338,000 improvement in net interest income. The increase in net interest income was driven by a $209,983,000 or a 16% increase in average interest earning assets. The net interest margin for the fourth quarter of 2005 was 4.73%, an increase of 26 basis points from the 4.47% achieved during the same period during 2004. In comparing the 2005 to 2004 fourth quarter, non interest expenses increased by $1,385,000 due primarily to increases in salaries and benefits of $788,000 that were the result of management and support staff increases necessary to accommodate branch expansion and normal salary progression and a $329,000 increase in premises and occupancy expenses due primarily to branch expansion and remodel expenses. Our effective tax rate was 33% for the fourth quarter of 2005 compared with 66% for the fourth quarter of 2004. Income tax expense increased $1,001,000 to $2,612,000 compared to the $1,611,000 recorded during the same quarter in 2004. The decrease in the 2005 tax rate is primarily attributable to the OTTI impairment charge and the charge related to the elimination of tax benefits of our REIT in 2004.
Credit Quality
The Company’s allowance for loan losses was $14,776,000 or 1.38% of total loans at December 31, 2005. Nonperforming assets totaled $1,960,000 or 0.11% of total assets and nonperforming loans stood at $1,900,000 or 0.18% of total loans. At December 31, 2005 the allowance for loan losses totaled 778% of nonperforming loans. This compares to an allowance for loan losses of $13,605,000 or 1.54% of total loans at December 31, 2004. At December 31, 2004, nonperforming assets totaled $4,454,000 or 0.31% of total assets, nonperforming loans totaled $4,394,000 or 0.50% of total loans and the allowance for loan losses totaled 310% of nonperforming loans.
Net charge-offs for the fourth quarter of 2005 were $517,000, which compares to $747,000 for the same period in 2004. Net charge-offs for the full year 2005 were $880,000, which compares to $1,650,000 for the same period in 2004. The decreased charge-off activity in the fourth quarter and for the full year 2005 was primarily in the commercial and agricultural segment of the loan portfolio.
Book Values - Capital
The Company’s capital at December 31, 2005 stood at $122,245,000 compared with $103,481,000 as of December 31, 2004. Book value and tangible book value per share totaled $11.56 and $11.42 as of December 31, 2005 as compared to $9.92 and $9.78 as of December 31, 2004. The Company’s tangible leverage capital ratio stood at 8.57% at December 31, 2005, compared with 8.46% as of December 31, 2004. The Company’s risk based capital ratio stood at 11.13% at December 31, 2005, compared with 11.55% as of December 31, 2004.
Conference Call Recording
Capital Corp of the West’s year end 2005 earnings conference call is scheduled for January 25, 2006 at 7:00 am PDT. Investors have the opportunity to listen to a recording of the conference call by going the web site of the company www.ccow.com just after the call and following the instructions to play back the recorded conference call. The recording will be available on the web site for 30 days following the conference call.
Safe Harbor
In addition to historical information, this release includes certain forward-looking statements regarding events and trends that may affect the Company’s future results. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the Company’s actual results to differ materially. These factors include general risks inherent to commercial lending; risks related to asset quality; risks related to the Company’s dependence on key personnel and its ability to manage existing and future growth; risks related to competition; risks posed by present and future government regulation and legislation; and risks resulting from federal monetary policy.
Reference Information
Capital Corp of the West, a bank holding company established November 1, 1995, is the parent company of County Bank, which has more than 28 years of service as “Central California’s Community Bank.” Currently County Bank has twenty two branch offices serving the counties of Fresno, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Sacramento, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, San Francisco, and Tuolumne. As of the latest FDIC data, County Bank has 6.5% market share in the six Central California counties in which it has significant retail branches. This ranks County Bank fifth out of thirty-seven banking institutions in this market area. For further information about the Company’s financial performance, contact Tom Hawker, President and Chief Executive Officer at (209) 725-2276, or R. Dale McKinney Chief Financial Officer, at (209) 725-7435.
-Financial Tables Follow-
