Thursday, March 13, 1997

1996 was a strong year for Tenth Farm Credit District

By J.T. SMITH

Farm Editor

STAMFORD - Financial results show that 1996 was another strong performance for the Tenth Farm Credit District.

The district comprises the Austin-based Farm Credit Bank of Texas; 46 Federal Land Bank Associations (FLBAs) in Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and 16 Production Credit Associations (PCAs) in Texas, Louisiana, and New Mexico.

Rolling Plains PCA, with its headquarters in Stamford, is a part of the Tenth Farm Credit District.

Loans in the district grew by $115 million during year, ending 1996 at $3.9 billion.

The 3.1 percent loan volume growth last year continued the positive trend experienced in 1995 when the district's portfolio increased by 2.9 percent.

Credit quality also continued to remain high at 96.4 percent acceptable loan volume - the same level as Dec. 31, 1995.

District net income as of Dec. 31, 1996, exceeded $83 million, compared with income of $29.3 million a year earlier.

Income in 1995 was impacted by two nonrecurring events - a $27.6 million extraordinary loss recorded on the early extinguishment of debt, and $16.2 million in taxes recorded in anticipation of future capital distributions to district PCAs.

Absent of those two events, the 1996 net income would have risen $10 million, or some 13.7 percent from year-end 1995.

In addition, nearly $15 million in dividends and patronage refunds were paid during the year to district stockholders. Members' equity in the district grew to $878.5 million at year end - an increase of $24.5 million or 2.9 percent over the 1995 year-end level.

"The past year can be characterized as successful in many ways," said Arnold R. Henson, chief executive officer of the Farm Credit Bank of Texas. "We succeeded in closing more new loans in a single year than in any previous year in our history - despite a difficult cattle market and a severe drought in parts of the territory."