Hanmi posts $35.9-million loss in fourth quarter

Hanmi Financial Corp., operating under regulators’ orders to raise capital for its Koreatown bank, said Thursday that it lost $35.9 million in the fourth quarter after setting aside $77 million to cover mounting losses on its loans.

The loss for the Los Angeles-based parent of Hanmi Bank amounted to 70 cents a share. A year earlier it had a loss of $3.8 million, or 8 cents.

The company’s stock slumped 7 cents, or 3.3%, to $2.04 on the report.

Jay S. Yoo, Hanmi’s president and chief executive, said the bank had “achieved a number of positive changes in what continues to be a very difficult economic environment.”

Those changes include strengthening the company’s loan monitoring department, he said.

“Our highest priority during the next few months will be to raise sufficient capital, executing our strategic plan to comply with regulatory requirements,” Yoo said.

Hanmi disclosed in November that regulators had ordered it to increase its capital by $100 million, which is about its current stock market value. The company’s share price had doubled in recent weeks on rumors that it would be bought by a large South Korean bank.

Hanmi’s loss for all of 2009 was $122.3 million, or $2.57 a share, mostly because of $196.4 million in provisions for losses on commercial real estate loans. In 2008 it lost $102.1 million, or $2.23 a share.

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