Park National Corp. in Newark, Ohio, reported a fourth-quarter profit of $10.9 million, or 77 cents a share, despite higher credit losses in its Florida loan portfolio.
The $7.1 billion-asset company lost $43.2 million, or $3.08 a share, in the fourth quarter of 2007, mostly because of a $54 million goodwill impairment charge it took on its 2007 acquisition of Vision Bank in Panama City, Fla. It took a second goodwill impairment charge of $55 million on the Vision acquisition in the third quarter. It spent $171 million to buy the bank.
Park National, which announced its results late Monday, said its earnings for the full year fell 39%, to $13.7 million, or 97 cents a share.
Though all of the goodwill has been written off, credit-quality problems associated with the Vision deal linger.
The company said it took a $32.6 million provision for loan losses in the quarter, up 76% from a year earlier. For the year the provision was $70.5 million, up nearly 140%; Park attributed two-thirds of that to the Vision subsidiary. Nonperforming loans totaled $188 million at Dec. 31, up 60% from a year earlier.
Vision Bank's markets in Florida and Alabama continue "to experience severely depressed real estate market values and credit deterioration," Park National said Monday.
Park National's 12 Ohio banks reported $215 million of new loans in 2008, accounting for nearly 6% of loan growth.
