Chattanooga-based First Security Group, holding company for FSGBank, posted a loss in the fourth quarter of 2010, topping its loss in 2009.
The company also reported that last year it shuffled managers and redoubled efforts to sell its foreclosed properties.
The company reported an $11.84 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2010, or 75 cents per share, compared to a $3.57 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2009. First Security lost $46.4 million over the course of 2010, or $2.95 per share, up from $35.4 million the previous year.
Rodger Holley, chairman and CEO of First Security, thanked shareholders, customers and employees for their support, even though the quarter’s results were “disappointing.” But with the bank now under Gene Coffman, new president and chief operating officer, “continued procedural improvements … are under way,” Holley said. “Mr. Coffman is managing the bank on a day-to-day basis and will continue spearheading our change initiatives.”
Stockholders’ equity at the end of 2010 was $93.4 million, and common stockholders’ equity was $61.7 million, a level below Office of the Comptroller of the Currency requirements, but “above the thresholds established for well-capitalized institutions under federal regulatory guidelines,” the company said.
The changes made in 2010 have “positioned us to return our focus to the business of banking,” Coffman said. “While our special assets department continues to work to reduce nonperforming assets, our lenders are focused on meeting the needs of our credit worthy customers here in East Tennessee and North Georgia.”
He added that the bank was committed to improving asset quality and “returning to profitability.”
Michael Rose, an analyst with Raymond James, said it’s “going to be tough for them.”
“They need capital, and not much has changed,” he said. “Each quarter they lose money, it hurts them and their capital that much more.”
The bank also announced Thursday that it would outsource the marketing and sale of foreclosed properties to local and regional firms, and had hired several additional managers at the bank to oversee risk and better serve commercial and retail customers.
First Security Group’s stock on Thursday closed at 94 cents a share, down 5 cents per share from the previous day’s closing.