Provident Bankshares Corp. in Baltimore said Tuesday that it lost $26.7 million, or 88 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, mainly due to a $32.7 million pretax impairment charge on certain securities and a doubling of its loan-loss provision from a year earlier, to $21.5 million.
More than $26 million of the charge related to the securities portfolio was attributed to losses in Provident's pooled trust-preferred securities issued by other banks and insurers.
Excluding the one-time charge, analysts on average had expected the $6.6 billion-asset company to earn 19 cents a share.
Last month, Provident said that it was selling itself to M&T Bank Corp. in Buffalo for $401 million. At the time M&T said that after a second-quarter deal closing it plans to write down $383 million of Provident's loans and $240 million of its securities.
Provident's shares rose 2.6% Tuesday.
