In filing a long-delayed revision of its third-quarter earnings Thursday, Bank of Granite Corp. in Granite Falls, N.C., reported a net loss of $22 million, compared with a $4.6 million profit the year earlier.
The $1.2 billion-asset company initially announced earnings for the third quarter on Oct. 16 and reported $4.1 million of net income at the time. Then in a November filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Granite said it had discovered "issues" in its loan portfolio that would require an increase in the loan-loss provision, initially reported as $1.4 million.
In its revision Granite reported a loan-loss provision of $42.7 million. It had net chargeoffs of $47.3 million in the quarter, up from $378,000 the year earlier. At Sept. 30 its nonperforming loans totaled $27.3 million, up from $13 million the year earlier.
Because of the delay in reporting earnings, Granite's stock had been in danger of being delisted by the Nasdaq Stock Market Inc., but the company said its request to remain listed was granted.
R. Scott Anderson, Granite's president and chief executive officer, said the company hopes to release its fourth-quarter earnings shortly.
Mark Muth, an analyst at First Horizon National Corp.'s FTN Midwest Securities Corp., said Granite remained well capitalized at Sept. 30, despite the third-quarter loss.
It is unlikely the fourth-quarter results will be plagued with similar major issues, Mr. Muth said, because Granite's regulatory safety and soundness examination and an outside auditor's review were done in February.
Granite's share price had fallen 3.3% by late Thursday, to $11.86.
