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The South Financial Group stock hits new low |
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Thursday, 04 February 2010 |
By Scott Miller
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GREENVILLE -- Stock in The South Financial Group closed at a new low of 41 cents per share on Tuesday.
Shares in the Greenville-based financial firm have hovered around 60 cents, topping 70 cents a share at times, for the last few months, but began to decline after South Financial reported its fourth quarter results last week.
In an interview last week, company President and CEO Lynn Harton said the falling stock price has been a distraction to employees throughout the bank’s markets in South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida.
He also noted that the company’s distressed stock value is a product of investors’ negative outlook of the banking industry and credit climate as a whole, not solely a reflection of South Financial’s problems.
“Once that view changes, capital will flow into banks again,” Harton said, expecting South Financial’s stock to rise with the tide.
That view may be changing already. Nonperforming assets continue to decline, and the bond market is returning, Harton said. Additionally, loan sales have been strong, and the net proceeds on those sales have improved, he said.
The Nasdaq Stock Market sent South Financial notice in December that its stock price must improve or the company could be delisted. South Financial could have nearly the entire year to comply, and Harton is optimistic the bank will return to profitability in 2011. |
