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PremierWest Bank's growth saps earnings PremierWest Bank's rapid-fire growth has come at a cost, but a tolerable one, president and CEO John Anhorn said Tuesday. The third-year bank has grown from $140 million to $484 million in assets in three years, doubled its branches in the past year and has a total of 30 offices, including mortgage and operations centers. "We had an opportunity to go into Grants Pass, which was not in our budget," Anhorn said. "But when we were staring opportunity in the face, we wanted to take advantage of it." Because the bank has used its own funds to expand, its earnings haven't kept pace with expectations. Earlier this month, PremierWest moved its net earnings forecast for 2001 down from 30 cents to 23 to 25 cents per share. "We picked up bankers with 200 years of experience," Anhorn said. "We've got to be flexible when there's an opportunity. We're not going to back off expansion, but we're going to focus on earnings and our piece of the consumer activity." A new 10,000-square-foot operations building has just been completed and Anhorn said the bank will centralize operations from expansion into Northern California and into one location with some staff trimmed by the end of the year. To accelerate income, more emphasis will be placed on growth of the mortgage division, finance company and investment services. "Our loan portfolio has grown 22 percent," Anhorn said. "Our board felt we had some real basic opportunities to fill in the market." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.