Key, Banks Slip on Loan Concerns

Key slipped 12% after saying it expected higher loan charge-offs than expected, and other regional banks slipped as well.
By Laurie Kulikowski ,

Shares of large- and mid-size banks slumped on Wednesday after

KeyCorp

(KEY) - Get Report

surprised Wall Street by warning of higher-than-expected loan losses.

Key shares slid more than 12% Wednesday after the bank said it expects to charge off more debt due to soured loans to homebuilders.

The Cleveland-based bank said in a

Securities and Exchange Commission

filing late Tuesday that it expects net loan charge-offs this year to be in the range of 1% to 1.30% of average loans, up from a previous estimate of 0.65% to 0.90% of loans. Key said in the filing that charge-offs in the second quarter and possibly the third quarter would run "above this range as

Key deals aggressively with reducing exposures in the residential homebuilder portfolio."

Key also expects "elevated" net loan charge-offs in its education and home equity loan portfolios.

At least one analyst says that more banks will take Key's cue and warn of higher losses.

"The disclosure is bad news for Key specifically today, but we think it is also bad news for most other lenders as well," writes Scott Siefers, an analyst at Sandler O'Neill & Partners.

"

Residential development and home equity portfolios have dogged many in the industry for the past several quarters, and it is becoming

increasingly apparent that these same portfolios will continue to do so for at least a few more," Siefers writes. "Consequently, we suspect that Key simply happens to be among the first so far to increase its

net charge-off guidance, and as time goes on, we would expect similar deterioration to impact many others in the industry as well."

As the economy worsens, banks with exposure to hard-hit housing areas such as the Midwest, California and Florida have been struggling with their residential and commercial real estate exposures.

Washington Mutual

(WM) - Get Report

,

Wachovia

(WB) - Get Report

,

Fifth Third

(FITB) - Get Report

and

National City

(NCC)

have also been hard hit by the housing downturn.

Key shares were falling $2.49 to $19.46, after sinking as low as $19.21. Fifth Third fell to an 11-year low of $18.48 during the day, on speculation that the Cincinnati-based bank may have to raise additional capital or lower its dividend to preserve capital cushions, according to media reports. WaMu, Wachovia and Nat City also were down.

Banking executives say their firms will likely have to

boost the reserves

they set aside for more losses -- particularly as the consumer struggles to pay his or her bills.

Key announced in December that it would

cease conducting business

with "out of footprint" homebuilders, after recording additional reserves to address continued weakness in the housing market. It also said it was exiting "dealer-originated home improvement lending activities," which involve prime loans but are largely out-of-footprint, Key says.

Several equity analysts slashed their earnings estimates for Key's next two fiscal years.

"Management indicated that while the company is being more aggressive in reducing its exposure to residential homebuilders and the related problem areas, it is also seeing a more recent decline in the housing market," according to Peter Winters, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets, a unit of Bank of Montreal.

While the primary reason for the elevated charge-offs is because of Key's deteriorating homebuilder portfolio, Key last quarter "moved its student loan portfolio from held for sale to held to maturity in order to reduce market risk," Winters writes in a note. "The national home equity portfolio ($1.2 billion) is almost entirely comprised of second-lien loans and management recognizes that the recovery rate on these loans is limited when the loans go bad."

Winters adds that unlike several of Key's regional banking competitors, the bank is well capitalized, "which allows the company to handle the increase in credit costs and gives it more flexibility to aggressively address its credit issues and get the problems behind it sooner than some of its peers, in our view."

However, Goldman Sachs' analyst Brian Foran says it is now likely that Key will have to cut its dividend to preserve capital.

In addition to the residential real estate problems experienced by Key, "California and Florida residential construction is a seemingly manageable 2% of

Key's loans (including commercial construction this rises to 6%), but the nonperforming ratio in these portfolios is over 30%," Foran writes in a note. "Put another way, 2% of the portfolio is producing 40% of the

nonperforming assets. As a result, although overall charge offs were flat at 67 basis points in

the first quarter, the

nonperforming assets ratio increased 35%," last quarter.

Foran estimates that Key has exposure to several troubled homebuilders, including

WCI Communities

(WCI)

,

Standard Pacific

(SPF)

,

Technical Olympic

(TOA)

,

Meritage

(MTH) - Get Report

,

MDC Holdings

(MDC) - Get Report

,

KB Homes

(KBH) - Get Report

and

Hovnanian

(HOV) - Get Report

.

Key currently pays a quarterly dividend of 37.5 cents a share.

"A 100% dividend payout ratio may prove unsustainable in the current environment," Foran writes. He forecasts a 50% dividend cut to preserve capital.

Sandler's Siefers writes the "silver lining" is that Key's warning did not raise any new, unknown causes of concern.

"In other words, the deteriorating

net charge-offs are still confined mostly to the residential homebuilder and home improvement portfolios (areas we already knew were weak). So the issue is more one of existing problems getting worse than it is of new problems cropping up," he says.

Loading ...