LOS ANGELES--(Business Wire)--
Hanmi Financial Corporation (Nasdaq: HAFC), the holding company of
Hanmi Bank, announced that its Board of Directors has decided to
suspend the quarterly cash dividend previously paid on shares of its
common stock. The most recent quarterly dividend of $0.03 per share
was paid on July 21, 2008.
"The Board's decision points to a challenging economic environment
that is affecting the entire financial sector," said Won R. Yoon,
M.D., Chairman. "It reflects as well federal and state regulatory
requirements that, due primarily to non-cash goodwill impairment
charges that resulted in net losses in 2007 and the first six months
of 2008, effectively preclude the company from paying a cash dividend.
Although the Bank remains well capitalized, it is important that we
maintain liquidity and conserve capital."
About Hanmi Financial Corporation:
Headquartered in Los Angeles, Hanmi Bank, a wholly owned
subsidiary of Hanmi Financial Corporation, provides services to the
multi-ethnic communities of California, with 26 full-service offices
in Los Angeles, Orange, San Francisco, Santa Clara and San Diego
counties, and six loan production offices in Colorado, Georgia,
Illinois, Texas, Virginia and Washington. Hanmi Bank specializes in
commercial, SBA and trade finance lending, and is a recognized
community leader. Hanmi Bank's mission is to provide a full range of
quality products and premier services to its customers and to maximize
shareholder value. Additional information is available at
www.hanmifinancial.com.
Forward-looking statements:
This release contains forward-looking statements, which are
included in accordance with the "safe harbor" provisions of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you
can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may,"
"will," "should," "could," "expects," "plans," "intends,"
"anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," or
"continue," or the negative of such terms and other comparable
terminology. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in
the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee
future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. These
statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity,
performance or achievements to differ from those expressed or implied
by the forward-looking statement. These factors include the following:
general economic and business conditions in those areas in which we
operate; demographic changes; competition for loans and deposits;
fluctuations in interest rates; risks of natural disasters related to
our real estate portfolio; risks associated with SBA loans; changes in
governmental regulation; ability to receive regulatory approval for
Hanmi Bank to declare dividends to Hanmi Financial; adequacy of our
allowance for loan losses, credit quality and the effect of credit
quality on our provision for credit losses and allowance for loan
losses; the ability of borrowers to perform under the terms of their
loans and other terms of credit agreements; our ability to
successfully integrate acquisitions we may make; the availability of
capital to fund the expansion of our business; and changes in
securities markets. In addition, we set forth certain risks in our
reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including
our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31,
2007, which could cause actual results to differ from those projected.
We undertake no obligation to update such forward-looking statements
except as required by law.
Hanmi Financial Corporation
Investor Relations
Stephanie Yoon, 213-351-9227
Copyright Business Wire 2008
