Standard Pacific Profit Down 43% in ’92

Standard Pacific Corp. said Tuesday that its 1992 profit fell 43% to $4.5 million, or 15 cents a share, from $7.9 million, or 29 cents a share, for 1991.

The diversified company--which builds homes in several states, operates a savings and loan and manufactures and markets office furniture systems--blamed the profit decline in part on losses it sustained from the closing of a furniture manufacturing unit in North Carolina.

Despite falling profits, Standard Pacific said its revenue for the year grew to $304.6 million, up 1.8% from $299.1 million in 1991.

For the fourth quarter, the company reported net income of $795,000, equal to 3 cents a share, down 39% from $1.3 million, or 5 cents a share, in the final period of 1991. Quarterly revenue of $80.6 million was up 1.1% from $79.7 million in the fourth quarter of 1991.

Because Standard Pacific converted to a stock corporation from a limited partnership at the end of 1991, its revenue and income figures for that year are reported as if it had been a corporation.

Chairman Arthur Svendsen said 1992 was Standard Pacific’s 25th consecutive profitable year.

Standard Pacific’s home building divisions in Northern California, Ventura County and Texas reported increased sales activity in the fourth quarter, the company reported, while its principal division in Southern California continued to languish in the region’s recession.

Svendsen said that Standard Pacific Savings, the company’s Newport Beach-based thrift, posted a 75% increase in mortgage loan originations during the year, for a total loan volume of more than $300 million, thanks largely to a surge of refinancing spawned by falling interest rates.

In addition, he said that although the company’s Santa Ana-based office furnishings unit, Panel Concepts Inc., closed the North Carolina manufacturing facility that was opened in late 1991, it will continue manufacturing operations in Santa Ana.