LITTLE ROCK — Metropolitan posts
loss of $1.6 million
Metropolitan National Bank lost $1.6 million in the third quarter compared with a $2.4 million loss a year earlier, the Little Rock-based lender said Friday.
Metropolitan earned $271,000 in the second quarter, its first profit after 10 quarters of losses.
Lunsford Bridges, chief executive officer of the bank, said the third-quarter loss was attributable to a write-down of bad loans based on current appraisals. To write down a property is to reduce its book value because it is overvalued in relation to its market value.
Otherwise, Bridges said, “Metropolitan is performing in a profitable status.”
The federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency sanctioned Metropolitan in 2008, citing problem assets and low capital levels.
Economic conference
set for Wednesday
Kenneth Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, will speak on the national economic outlook at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s annual Economic Forecast Conference on Wednesday.
The conference will be held at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Little Rock from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Michael Pakko, chief economist at the Institute for Economic Advancement at UALR, will deliver the Arkansas economic outlook at the conference.
Others scheduled to speak include Ray Dillon, chief executive officer of Deltic Timber; Lane Kidd, president of the Arkansas Trucking Association; J.
French Hill, chief executive officer for Delta Trust and Banking Corp.; and Jon Harrison, former general manager of Caterpillar Inc.’s North Little Rock plant.
The cost for the conference is $50 per person, which includes lunch.
More information is available by calling Tonya Hass at (501) 683-7407 or visiting iea.ualr.edu.
Arkansas Index falls
as 7 stocks decline
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 1.52 to 218.12 on Friday.
Nine stocks advanced and seven declined.
Deltic Timber climbed 5.3 percent in heavy trading. America’s Car-Mart lost 4.7 percent in light trading.
All 16 stocks were up for the week.
For the week, Acxiom gained 21 percent. Arkansas Best was up 11.5 percent for the week.
Volume for the index Friday was 25.5 million shares, compared with average volume of 27.5 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 33 on 10/29/2011