3/13/2009 - SALEM COUNTY, NEW JERSEY, Harvest Community Bank (OTCBB:HCBP) today reported results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2008. The Bank’s fourth quarter net income was $81,756, or $0.07 per share, compared to net income of $250,786, or $0.22 per share, for the corresponding fourth quarter 2007 period. Full-year 2008 earnings of $821,231, or $0.72 per share, were 11.1% below 2007’s earnings of $924,042, or $0.81 per share. The decrease in net income was primarily a result of an increase in the Bank’s loan loss provision. The increased provision amount is due to the deterioration of the national and local economies and the potential impact of such deterioration on the Bank’s loan portfolio.
Other areas of the Bank’s performance continued to show growth during 2008. Total assets increased to $185,551,361 at December 31, 2008, a $6,571,017 or 3.7% increase over the year ended December 31, 2007. Gross loans increased by $6,949,698, to $142,154,092 as of December 31, 2008, an increase of 5.1% over December 31, 2007. The Bank’s total deposits were $168,949,568 at December 31, 2008, which was an increase of $5,944,367, or 3.6% over December 31, 2007.
Regarding these fiscal 2008 results, President and Chief Executive Officer Dennis H. Engle stated, "Harvest Community Bank’s earnings for the fourth quarter and the full year were positive overall, although certainly impacted by the economic forces that have overwhelmed the entire financial services industry. While we expect the economy to struggle throughout the coming year, we remain cautiously optimistic, continuing to focus on growing our assets, showing profitability and investing in the future of our organization and our communities."
Harvest Community Bank is a community bank headquartered in Pennsville, New Jersey. The Bank has additional branches in Woodstown, Elmer and Salem, New Jersey. The Bank also maintains a Loan Production Office (LPO) in Millville, NJ. The Bank began operations in January 2000 with the purpose of serving small businesses, professionals, and retail customers in Salem, Cumberland, and Gloucester Counties, New Jersey. The Bank’s deposits are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation up to a maximum of $250,000 per depositor.
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
Information in this release relating to Harvest Community Bank's future prospects which are forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including, but not limited to, the following: (1) operating, legal and regulatory risks, such as continued levels of loan quality and origination volumes, continued relationships with major customers and technological changes; (2) economic, political and competitive forces affecting our banking business, such as changes in economic conditions, especially in our market area, interest rate fluctuations, competitive product and pricing pressures within our market, personal and corporate bankruptcies, monetary policy and inflation; (3) our ability to grow internally; and (4) the risk that management's analyses of these risks and forces could be incorrect and/or that the strategies developed to address them could be unsuccessful. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "expects," "subject," "believe," "will," "intends," "will be," or "would." More information about factors that potentially could affect Harvest Community Bank's financial results is included in Harvest Community Bank's
Harvest Bank filings with the FDIC, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008. Harvest Community Bank assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking information in this announcement.
