The first quarter report on Whitney's gains is just in time for its merger with Mississippi's Hancock Bank. Whitney Bank bounced back from a more than $90 million profit loss last year with positive earnings posted the first quarter of this year - just in time for its union with Mississippi-based Hancock Bank.
The Times-Picayune's Rebecca Mowbray reports that Whitney took in $17.3 million during the first three months of 2011, based on figures from what could be the last earnings release before Hancock's buyout of Louisiana's largest bank is complete. Pending the required regulatory and shareholder approval, the Hancock-Whitney deal will be finalized this quarter.
The gains from Whitney follow an expansion into Florida that brought on a heap of bad loans amid the economic downturn, costing the company $6.3 million in the first quarter of 2010 and another loss of $88 million in the last quarter of 2010.
The Hancock-Whitney marriage will bring combined assets of $20 billion.
Read more on the Whitney's positive earnings and its merger with Hancock here.
For more on the Whitney-Hancock merger, check out the February Abiz cover story, "Raw Deal."