Union Planters Corporation announces record quarterly, annual earnings

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Union Planters Corporation Jan. 17 reported record net earnings of $115.9 million, or 83 cents per diluted share for the fourth quarter of 2001. According to a Union Planters news release, that amount represents an increase of 9.2 percent compared to the 76 cents per diluted share for the same period in 2000. |ret||ret||tab|

For the full year 2001, net earnings were a record $443.6 million, or $3.20 per diluted share, an increase of 6.7 percent compared to the $3 per diluted share reported for 2000. |ret||ret||tab|

These earnings provided a return on average assets of 1.3 percent, a return on average common equity of 14.34 percent, and a return on average tangible common equity of 20.83 percent, compared to 1.21 percent, 14.63 percent, and 22.39 percent, respectively, for 2000.|ret||ret||tab|

"We are pleased to report another re-cord level of earnings per share in 2001," said Jackson W. Moore, chairman, president and chief executive officer. |ret||ret||tab|

Moore noted that the dedication of thousands of Union Planters employees was key in the bank's success.|ret||ret||tab|

"While this year has certainly been a year of transition for Union Planters, it has been a year of tremendous progress. We have repositioned our balance sheet, made efficiency a priority, challenged our customer service standards, identified product development needs, and invested in people, tools and technology. All of these actions are sharpening our focus on delivering consistent long-term earnings growth, and the results are becoming embedded in our financial performance. |ret||ret||tab|

"Our net interest margin for the year 2001 increased to 4.2 percent as a result of growth in core funding, improved loan pricing and the targeted strategies we set in place for managing balance sheet volatility. We continue to produce positive results in growing fee income, and our operating efficiency ratio for 2001 continued to show improvement," he added.|ret||ret||tab|

Union Planters devoted much of 2001 to the development and implementation of its UPExcel project, but Moore said the year also was impacted by several corporate initiatives, which created significant offsetting, recurring items.|ret||ret||tab|

"These included the sale or consolidation of numerous branch locations, sales of low margin assets and non-strategic business lines, and costs related to UPExcel. As expected, the slowing economy brought about a softening in our asset quality. However, given the current economic climate and the results of the events of Sept. 11, our asset quality re-mains relatively stable. As expected, nonperforming assets did increase about 6 percent during the quarter to $302.1 million at Dec. 31, 2001. We remain confident, however, that our conservative underwriting practices and the nature of our nonperformers will minimize losses, and we expect the charge-off percentage to remain at current levels over the next several quarters. We remain focused on consistent earnings growth and are confident in our earnings forecast for 2002."[[In-content Ad]]