TFS Financial posts 4Q loss on loan losses

CLEVELAND

Bank holding company TFS Financial Corp. said Friday that a surge in souring loans drove it to a fiscal fourth-quarter loss against a year-earlier profit.

For the three months ended Sept. 30, the company lost $12.9 million, 4 cents per share. That compared with a profit of $14.1 million, or 4 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.

For the full-year, the company earned $14.4 million, or 5 cents per share, down 74 percent from last year's profit of $54.5 million, or 17 cents per share.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a quarterly profit of 3 cents per share for TFS, which is the holding company for Third Federal Savings and Loan Association. The full-year earnings forecast was 12 cents per share.

In the latest quarter, TFS recorded loan loss provisions of $57 million, compared with $9 million for the fourth quarter of 2008. Net charge-offs were $17.6 million for the quarter, compared with $7.4 million last year.

For the year, loan loss provisions were $115 million, compared with $34.5 million last year. Net charge-offs were $63.5 million in 2009 and $15.8 million in 2008.

TFS said the elevated numbers were the result of tumbling home values and higher unemployment, and reflected "the uncertain economic times that face many of our loan customers."

Meanwhile, the company saw deposits increase 4 percent in the quarter to $8.57 billion, primarily as more customers put money into certificates of deposits, or CDs.

Shares of TFS Financial slipped a penny in after-hours trading following the release of the earnings report, after falling 6 cents to close at $11.45 during the regular session.