CoBiz posts $16M Q2 loss, begins stock sale - Business First of Columbus:

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million, or 72 cents per in the second quarter, as the weak economy continued to exacty a toll onthe company, officials said The loss compares with a profit of $4.2 or 18 cents per share, in the same quartere a year earlier. Denver-based CoBiz COBZ) owns and Arizona Business Bank. The latesy quarter’s results include a $35.1 millionj pre-tax provision for loan and credit losses, or 150 percent of net charge-offs — whichh were $23.4 million — for the “We continue to take a conservative posture in our provisioning forloan losses,” Chairman and CEO Steve Bangert said in a statement.
“Our secons quarter provision brings our allowance to loan ratio tonearlgy 3.9 percent, one of the strongest in the industry. Whilr I remain confident in oursenior management’s ability to effectively respondx to the current credit obstacles, we felt it was prudengt to continue building the allowance given the uncertainty in the Nonperforming assets ended the quarter at $93.98 million, or 3.7 percent of totalp assets, up from $52.5 million or 2 percenrt of total assets on March 31. Separately on Monday, CoBiz said it had begun a sale ofabout $45 millioh of its common stock.
It will use the proceed s for generalcorporate purposes, including supporting the capital needs of its bank expanding operations, possible acquisitions and working capitak needs. Last week, CoBiz announced it had hired Coloradi and Arizonamarket presidents, , to oversee bankinb operations in each market. “Wse remain focused on building our franchis e during these challenging times and want to ensur we are positioned to take advantagre of unique market opportunities that we expect willpresentf themselves,” Bangert said.
“To that end, we recentlyy announced the hiring of Colorado and Arizona market presidents who will oversere all banking operations in theirrespectivse markets, provide direction for future growth and free up some of our existin resources to focus on high quality business developmeng opportunities. We will also continue to dedicater appropriate resources through our Special Assetx Group to address resolution ofproblem loans.
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