AmericanWest trims losses
Embattled Spokane-based AmericanWest Bancorp. announced a smaller loss for the fourth quarter and the full year, but its non-performing assets grew and the company said it hadn’t yet met two benchmarks ordered last year by federal and state regulators.
AmericanWest reported Friday that it lost $17.7 million, or $1.03 per share, for the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared to a loss of $57.7 million, or $3.35 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2008. AmericanWest lost $28.4 million, or $1.65 per share, in the third quarter last year.
For the year, the company reported a loss of $71.1 million, or $4.13 per share, compared with a loss of $192.4 million, or $11.18 per share, for 2008.
AmericanWest’s nonperforming assets were 9.6 percent of total assets on Dec. 31, compared with 5.7 percent of total assets at the same time the previous year. At the end of the third quarter, non-performing assets were 8.9 percent.
The bank’s loans in default were 8.3 percent of total loans on Dec. 31, compared with 5.7 percent of total loans the same day the previous year.
AmericanWest said in a news release that the increase in nonperforming loans was mostly due to two soured commercial real estate loans, one on a lodging and entertainment complex in Utah and the other on a ski and golf facility in New Hampshire that’s owned by a Utah-based company.
AmericanWest said it had another 6.3 percent of outstanding loans that haven’t been classified as non-performing, but have been identified as “potential problem loans.”
The company said it has hired Cappello Capital Corp. of Santa Monica., Calif., to help interest potential investors. Cappello joins another financial adviser, hired in 2008, in trying to secure investors.
AmericanWest reported that it has yet to meet two provisions contained in a regulatory cease-and-desist order that was imposed by the FDIC and the Washington Department of Financial Institutions last May. One concerns a capital ratio and the other a ratio of assets classified as substandard or doubtful.