Trustmark sees jump in earnings in 2011

JACKSON — Trustmark Corporation reports net income available to common shareholders of $106.8 million for the year ended Dec. 31, 2011, which represented diluted earnings per common share of $1.66, an increase of 5.7 percent compared to figures one year earlier.

Trustmark during 2011 produced a return on average tangible common equity of 12.25 percent and a return on average assets of 1.11 percent.

In the fourth quarter of 2011, Trustmark’s net income available to common shareholders totaled $24.3 million, which represented diluted earnings per common share of $0.38.

Trustmark’s board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.23 per common share payable March 15, 2012, to shareholders of record on March 1, 2012.

Gerard R. Host, president and CEO, said, “We experienced significant improvement in credit quality as reflected by a 17.5 percent reduction in nonperforming assets, a 40.0 percent reduction in provisioning for loan losses and a 43.6 percent reduction in net charge-offs relative to the prior year. We also made additional inroads in building and strengthening customer relationships as our deposit base increased $521.8 million, or 7.4 percent, to $7.6 billion at year-end 2011.

In April, Trustmark completed an FDIC-assisted transaction of a 90-year-old financial institution with $204.3 million in deposits in Carthage. In November, it announced a merger with Bay Bank & Trust Company, a 76-year-old financial institution with assets of $247 million in Panama City, Fla. That transaction is expected to close during the first quarter of 2012.