Profit up for First Financial
Friday, April 17, 1998
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A 20 percent rise in fee income and loan growth helped First Financial Bancorp report a 7.3 percent increase in first-quarter net income from a year ago.
The Hamilton-based parent of the First National Bank of Southwestern Ohio said Thursday that it earned $10.1 million, or 61 cents a share, in the quarter, compared with $9.4 million, or 57 cents a share, a year earlier.
Non-interest income rose 20 percent after adjusting for a non-recurring gain of $377,000. The company's net interest income rose 16 percent, fueled by a 15 percent increase in loan growth from the first quarter of 1997.
First-quarter pretax earnings were pinched by $870,000 in acquisition-related costs from the formation of First Financial's new affiliate, Community First Bank & Trust.
First Financial, with assets of $2.6 billion, has 106 branch offices in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.
In other earnings reports:
KeyCorp -- Commercial loan growth and higher fee income helped the Cleveland-based parent of KeyBank post first-quarter net earnings of $235 million, or 53 cents a share, compared with $212 million, or 47 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.
OHSL Financial Corp. -- The parent of Oak Hills Savings and Loan gained $563,000, or 47 cents a share, compared with a profit of $525,000, or 44 cents a share, a year earlier. Net interest income rose to $1.8 million in the quarter, up $75,000 from a year ago.
The company, with assets of $251 million, has five offices in Greater Cincinnati.
United Shields Corp. -- The Cincinnati-based consolidator of plastic products companies, lost $1.5 million, or 15 cents a share, in its fiscal 1997, compared with a loss of $371,237, or 4 cents a share, the prior year.
The 1997 results reflected only two months of operations of its first two acquisitions: HeaterMeals Co. in Springdale and R.P. Industries. Sales for the year ended Dec. 31 totaled $632,664. The company had no sales the prior year.
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Profit up for First Financial
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