First Horizon National, an American financial services firm, has reported a net loss of $55.7 million or $0.27 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2008, an improvement over the net loss of $125.1 million or $0.61 per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2008.
The pre-tax loss for First Horizon National (FHN) increased to $86.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared with $214 million pre-tax loss in the third quarter of 2008. Total revenues were $543 million in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared to $528.3 million in the third quarter of 2008.
For the 12 months ended December 31, 2008, the net loss was $192 million or $1.06 per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $170.1 million or $1.29 per diluted share, for the same period in 2007.
Bryan Jordan, CEO of First Horizon, said: We’ve made solid strategic headway, and our efforts show in our fourth quarter results. Our early decisions to raise capital, sell assets and exit our lending businesses outside our banking region put us in a stronger position by the end of one of the worst years the financial services industry has faced.
We’re leveraging the money we received from the government’s TARP programme to facilitate lending to our consumer, small business and commercial customers. The TARP funds contributed to our ability to originate more than $900 million in new loans in the fourth quarter.
