Rurban to restructure, sell off some assets

12/22/2006

DEFIANCE Rurban Financial Corp., which struggled financially last year and early this year, announced several restructuring moves last night, including merging metro Toledo s Exchange Bank into the firm s State Bank and Trust Co. operations.

The company said it will sell $17.5 million in investments, mostly to pay off borrowings; sell $3.6 million of its credit card portfolio; complete the sale of $1.4 million in non-performing assets; and recover $888,000 from previously charged off WorldCom Inc. bond losses.

Exchange Bank and Reliance Financial services, its investment and trust unit, are to be consolidated into Rurban s main operating bank, State Bank and Trust, before April.

The firm had a $814,000 third-quarter profit and a $714,000 second-quarter profit on higher net interest income. But it had a lower first-quarter profit and a significantly reduced annual profit last year, partly because of higher provisions for loan losses.