THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 18, 1995 TAG: 9504180276
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM SHEAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
Helped by robust loan growth and higher income from fees, NationsBank Corp. said Monday that its first-quarter net income climbed 6 percent from the year-earlier period.
The Charlotte-based banking company said it earned $443 million in the three months ended March 31, compared with $417 million in the January-through-March period of 1994.
Per-share earnings, fully diluted, were $1.58, up 5 percent from $1.51.
During the recent quarter, ``our good performance was across the board'' and included improvements in operating efficiency and credit quality, bank spokesman Rusty Page said.
Page declined to comment on recent reports in The Wall Street Journal that the company may be interested in merging with Chase Manhattan Corp., a major international banking company based in New York.
NationsBank's shares closed Monday at 51, down 3/4 for the day.
NationsBank said the 15 percent increase in its loans and leases for the first quarter came largely in consumer lending, including residential mortgage loans, and commercial lending.
Commercial loans remained steady at 44 percent of average loans, and consumer loans dipped to 20 percent from 21 percent of its loan portfolio in last year's first quarter, NationsBank said.
But real estate loans dropped to 10 percent from 13 percent of total loans in the year-earlier quarter.
NationsBank acknowledged that its net interest income for the recent quarter had been squeezed by the higher cost of funds and pressure on the yields of its investment securities.
Its net interest margin - a measure of the spread between the cost of funds and the yields on loans and investments - narrowed to 3.41 percent from 3.69 percent in the first quarter of 1994.
Non-interest income rose 7 percent from the year-earlier quarter due partly to growth in trust fees and deposit fees, Page said.
NationsBank's fee income included the full results of its NationsSecurities brokerage subsidiary, Page said. Late last year, NationsBank bought the 50 percent stake in NationsSecurities that had been owned by financial-services holding company Dean Witter, Discover & Co.
NationsBank's profits for the recent quarter also benefited from a smaller loan-loss provision, which dropped to $70 million from $100 million in the year-earlier period.
It nonperforming assets were reduced to $1.08 billion, or 0.58 percent of total assets, from $1.64 billion, or 0.99 percent of total assets, at the end of March 1994, NationsBank said. by CNB