West Coast Bancorp Loss Doubled in ’91

West Coast Bancorp, the holding company for two banks and a thrift and loan, said it lost $2.4 million, or 26 cents a share, last year, double 1990’s loss of $1.2 million, or 13 cents a share.

For the fourth quarter, the company lost $1.7 million, or 19 cents a share, contrasted with a year-earlier loss of $1 million, or 11 cents a share.

Chairman John B. Joseph blamed the losses on the recession, which turned some loans sour and forced the holding company’s subsidiaries to repossess some real estate for which they had loaned money.

West Coast Bancorp has three subsidiaries: Sunwest Bank of Tustin, Heritage Thrift & Loan of Brea and Sacramento First National Bank.

The company ended the year owning $11.4 million worth of borrowers’ real estate that it had foreclosed on.

That was up sharply from 1990’s $3.9 million.

West Coast Bancorp also said it was forced to write down the value of that real estate on its ledger books last year by about $1.2 million.

The company was also forced to set aside $9.1 million this year to cover losses from bad loans, the same amount as last year, which the company said was relatively high.

Because the company wrote off the worst loans and foreclosed on some of its shakiest real estate loans, it reduced non-performing loans to $10.3 million, or 2.9% of the total last year, down from $14.4 million, or 3.8%, on 1990.

West Coast Bancorp ended the year with assets of $459 million.