THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 19, 1994 TAG: 9408190648
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM SHEAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
Helped by a one-time gain from the sale of thrift branches in Florida, Essex Financial Partners L.P. reported a modest profit Thursday for the quarter ended June 30.
The Virginia Beach-based owner of Essex Savings Bank said it earned $22,000, or 1 cent per class A partnership unit, for the April-through-June period.
In the second quarter of 1993, the partnership lost $2.7 million, or $1.29 per partnership unit.
As part of its results for the recent quarter, Essex reported a net gain of $772,000 from the sale of deposits, loans and fixed assets in Florida. However, most of that gain was offset by assorted expenses, a fall-off in fee income and lower yields on loans, Essex said.
The partnership said its second-quarter expenses included $280,000 associated with its foreclosed real estate and $275,000 of interest expense on senior notes held by PaineWebber Capital Inc.
Essex, whose thrift still operates in North Carolina and Virginia, entered Florida in 1990 by buying the deposits and certain assets of a failed savings and loan association. It sold those deposits and assets to Chase Federal Bank on June 30.
Essex has sustained heavy losses in recent years from its real estate lending and from the declining value of mortgage-servicing rights it had purchased. The partnership said its capital deficit on June 30 had widened to $5.71 million, or $2.55 per unit, from $997,000, or 30 cents per unit, at mid-1993.
In late July, Essex agreed to settle a class-action suit pending in federal court in Texas. The settlement would extinguish $20 million of partnership debt to PaineWebber Capital, Essex said.
If the proposed settlement had been in effect on June 30, the partnership would have had $11.9 million of capital, or $5.73 per partnership unit, Essex said. by CNB