CoBiz posts $16M Q2 loss, begins stock sale - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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million, or 72 cents per share, in the secondd quarter, as the weak economy continued to exact a toll on the officialssaid Monday. The loss compares with a profitof $4.2 or 18 cents per share, in the same quartert a year earlier. Denver-based CoBiz (NASDAQ: COBZ) owns and Arizonsa Business Bank. The latest quarter’s resultsd include a $35.1 million pre-tax provision for loan and credi losses, or 150 percenft of net charge-offs — whicu were $23.
4 million — for the “We continue to take a conservativde posture in our provisioninfg forloan losses,” Chairman and CEO Steved Bangert said in a “Our second quarter provision bringx our allowance to loan ratioo to nearly 3.9 percent, one of the strongesg in the industry. While I remain confident in oursenior management’s ability to effectively respond to the currenyt credit obstacles, we felt it was prudent to continu e building the allowance given the uncertainty in the economy.” Nonperforminhg assets ended the quarter at $93.i9 million, or 3.7 percent of total assets, up from $52.5 million or 2 perceny of total assets on Marchy 31.
Separately on Monday, CoBia said it had begun a sale ofaboutg $45 million of its common It will use the proceeds for generalp corporate purposes, including supporting the capital needs of its bank expanding operations, possible acquisitions and working capital Last week, CoBiz announced it had hired Colorado and Arizonza market presidents, , to oversee banking operationes in each market. “We remaibn focused on building our franchise durinbg these challenging times and want to ensure we are positionecd to take advantage of unique markef opportunities that we expect will present Bangert said.
“To that end, we recently announcec the hiring of Colorado and Arizonqa market presidents who will oversee all bankinf operations in theirrespective markets, provides direction for future growth and free up some of our existingh resources to focus on high quality business developmentr opportunities. We will also continue to dedicate appropriate resources through our Speciao Assets Group to address resolution ofproblej loans.
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