EARNINGS
Great Florida Bank reports narrower loss
Miami Herald Staff and Wire Report
GREAT FLORIDA BANK: The company posted a third-quarter net loss of $13.3 million, or $1.02 a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $13.9 million, or $1.06 a share.
The latest loss was driven largely by a $15.7 million loan-loss provision to cushion against future credit problems.
The Miami Lakes-based bank, whose shares trade on Nasdaq, said nonperforming loans were $161.2 million, or 12.9 percent of total loans, at the end of third quarter, compared with $159.1 million, or 12 percent of the portfolio, in the preceding quarter.
The bank said it is maintaining its ``well capitalized'' status, trimming expenses, and working on lowering the cost of deposits as it works through the credit problems that reflect Florida's sour economy.
``The factors contributing to the prolonged and challenging economic environment are hindering not only any meaningful signs of improvement in the economy at large, but our operating performance as well,'' Mehdi Ghomeshi, the bank's executive chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.
-- MARTHA BRANNIGAN
AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP: AIG posted its second straight profit as investment losses narrowed and catastrophe costs declined.
Third-quarter net income of $455 million, or 68 cents a share, compares with a net loss of $24.5 billion a year earlier, New York-based AIG said.
``Their operating businesses were in pretty good shape all along, it's just they had these incredible write-downs,'' said Marshall Front, who oversees $500 million as chief executive officer of Chicago-based Front Barnett Associates and sold his AIG stake last year. ``While they're not out of the woods, they're no longer in the deepest part of the forest.''
The insurer was rescued in September 2008 with a package that was revised three times to include a $60 billion Federal Reserve credit line, a Treasury Department investment of as much as $69.8 billion, and up to $52.5 billion to buy mortgage-linked assets owned or backed by the company.
FREDDIE MAC: The mortgage-finance company in government conservatorship posted a $5 billion third-quarter loss and said it has no immediate need for more U.S. Treasury aid.
The loss narrowed from a record $25.3 billion loss a year earlier, the McLean, Va., company said.
CONTINUCARE: Profit more than doubled during its first quarter, which ended Sept. 30.
The Miami physician services firm had net income of $5.3 million, or nine cents per share, compared with $2.5 million, or four cents per share, in the same period of last year. Revenue grew 17 percent to $76.0 million.
Cash flow from operations more than doubled, to $11.2 million from $5 million in the same period of last year.
During the quarter, Continucare launched a subsidiary, Seredor, which operates sleep diagnostic centers.
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