Hancock boosts second-quarter earnings

Hancock Holding Co. posted an 86% boost in second-quarter earnings as its June 4 acquisition of banking rival Whitney Holding Corp. kicked in, the company says. For the three months ending June 30, Hancock earned $12.1 million, or 22 cents per share, compared with year-ago earnings of $6.5 million, or 17 cents per share. Hancock says it had $22.2 million of pre-tax costs associated with the Whitney acquisition during the latest quarter. The company reduced the value of Whitney’s troubled loan portfolio by $463 million—a 6.7% discount—to reflect fair market value and recorded goodwill and other intangibles of about $783 million. During the quarter, Hancock says it continued to experience limited loan demand in its operating region along the Gulf Coast. Because of the acquisition, Hancock’s average deposits rose to $9.2 billion from $6.8 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2011. However, without Whitney, deposits fell about 4%, Hancock says. Interest income rose quarter-to-quarter to $101.9 million from $69.6 million, and non-interest income rose to $46.7 million from $34.1 million. Nonperforming assets totaled $258.2 million at the end of the second quarter, primarily because of the addition of $81.2 million of Whitney’s foreclosed assets. Hancock totaled the price of the Whitney acquisition at $1.6 billion, including the exchange of 40.8 million of Hancock common shares for Whitney shares and $308 million paid to the U.S. Treasury to redeem Whitney preferred shares. Whitney received the money in exchange for the shares when it participated in the federal government’s TARP program.