Reflecting recent deals' contributions, GreenPoint Financial Corp. reported record core net income of $57.5 million for the first quarter, an increase of 22% from the year earlier and 59% from the fourth quarter.
Core cash earnings were $82.7 million, an increase of 29% from the year earlier and 35% from the fourth quarter.
"We saw a lot of growth in top-line revenues for all our businesses," said Thomas S. Johnson, GreenPoint's chairman.
"This was the first quarter to include the full impact of last year's two acquisitions, and the strong results demonstrate the earnings power of our broader, more diversified specialty housing finance business," Mr. Johnson said.
"It was an all-around solid quarter," said Chad Yonker, thrift analyst at Fox-Pitt, Kelton. "The acquisitions they've made are clearly adding to earnings at this point."
Mr. Johnson said application and loan-closing volumes in the residential mortgage business remained strong and margins increased.
The manufactured housing business was characterized by record applications and originations, he said, as well as by improved pricing and margins.
Loan originations totaled $3.8 billion, an increase of 46% from the first quarter of 1998.
The thrift made $731 million of loans in its NoDoc mortgage program, an increase of 26%.
After record application volume in the fourth quarter, the first quarter's application volume remained high, during what is a seasonally slow quarter, Mr. Johnson said.
The March 31 pipeline was at a new high of $867 million, 25% above the year-earlier level.
GreenPoint's Headlands Mortgage Co. subsidiary had $2.4 billion of loan originations, an increase of 57% from the year before and within 1% of record fourth-quarter volume. The March 31 pipeline was $2 billion, 27% above the year earlier, and within 1% of the Dec. 31 pipeline total.
Alternative A production of $832 million for the first quarter was 44% more than in the comparable 1998 quarter. Nonagency volume was $1.5 billion, up from $939.4 million. Agency loan volume was $575.2 million, compared with $443.4 million. Home equity and second mortgage loan volume totaled $239.4 million, an increase of $105.6 million.
Manufactured housing loan originations for the quarter showed strong growth, to a record $715 million, up 37% from the year earlier and 9% from the fourth quarter, Mr. Johnson said.
Applications were also at a record level, up 37% from the first quarter of 1998.
Among other thrifts, Astoria Financial Corp. posted net income of $53.5 million, a 47.6% increase from year-earlier net of $36.2 million.
The first-quarter results "are indicative of our success in achieving the financial objectives associated with our in-market acquisition strategy," said George L. Engelke, Astoria's chairman.
Charter One Bank, Cleveland, reported record net operating income of $89.6 million, up 23% from the year before.
Net interest income was up 7%, and retail banking revenue 41%.
Downey Financial Corp. in Newport Beach, Calif., reported first-quarter net income of $12.3 million, down 30% from the year earlier.
Excluding special charges in the year-earlier quarter, the company said, net income from banking operations increased by almost 7% from the year before.
