BankUnited in Miami Lakes, Fla., sold $79 million of taxi-medallion loans in the fourth quarter, which it said accounted for nearly all of the troubled loans that had been left after earlier sales.
Separately, the $32.2 billion-asset company on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter net income of $60 million, or 59 cents per share, which was a penny better than the mean estimate of analysts compiled by FactSet Research Systems. The results exclude the impact of the sale of another loan portfolio that involved a loss-share agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
In the fourth quarter of 2017, BankUnited posted net income of $418 million, $3.79 per share, as a result of the federal income tax cut.
BankUnited did not disclose the sale price or the buyer of its taxi-loan portfolio. The company recorded a loan-loss provision of $14 million for the time it held the taxi loans during the quarter. That reduced net income by 10 cents per share.
Also during the fourth quarter, BankUnited sold a portfolio of covered real estate and other loans with an unpaid balance of $265.2 million. The sale generated a loss of $9 million, based on the cumulative effect of the amortization of an indemnification asset, loan accretion and other factors. BankUnited, which
“This quarter was a pivotal one for BankUnited, positioning us well for the future,” Chairman and CEO Rajinder Singh said in a news release.
Net interest income rose 21% to $282 million. Net loans rose 3% to $21.9 billion. The yield on total interest-earning assets increased 103 basis points to 5.59%.
Noninterest income fell 28% to $33 million on lower gains on the sale of loans, lower gains on investment securities, and less income from the resolution of covered assets.
Noninterest expense climbed 53% to $246 million, largely because of the amortization of the indemnification asset.
