East West Bancorp Puts 3Q Net At 31c/Share
Vs 20c
By FRED BIDDLE
SAN MARINO, Calif. -- East West Bancorp Inc. (EWBC) Thursday
expects to report earnings of 31 cents a diluted share for the quarter ended
Sept. 30, beating First Call/Thomson Financial's 2-broker consensus of 30
cents.
In the year-ago quarter, the company earned 20 cents a diluted share. The
company will report third quarter results before the market opens Thursday.
The parent of East West Bank, a 22-branch chain specializing in the
Chinese-American market in Southern California and the San Francisco Bay
Area, also said it remains comfortable with the consensus estimates of 31
cents in the fourth quarter and $1.15 a diluted share for 1999. The company
earned $18 million, 76 cents a diluted share, in 1998. Net interest income
increased 25% to $55.7million.
For the quarter, total average assets increased 14% to $2.09 billion, primarily
from growth in multifamily and commercial real estate, commercial and
construction loans. Executives said they expect commercial lending to account
for most loan origination growth for the rest of this year.
In an interview, Chief Executive Dominic Ng also said that East West plans to
continue a string of acquisitions that has in the past year included American
International Bank, Los Angeles, and First Central Bank N.A., Artesia, Calif.
"We're always in the market looking" for instantly accretive acquisitions, Ng
said, adding that "in California, there are over 30 Chinese-American banks,
although not all of them are for sale.
" If there are other non-ethnic banks available that we could get (significant)
cost savings from acquiring, "we'd jump at them in a second," he added. Mr.
Ng didn't specify acquisition targets, however. |
