BNC Bancorp reverses 4Q results

High Point-based BNC Bancorp posted a fourth-quarter profit of $797,000, or 8 cents per share, for common shareholders, it reported today.

That's up from a loss of $6.7 million, or 61 cents per diluted share, for the same period in 2010. The parent company of Bank of North Carolina, which opened its first Charlotte branch in recent weeks and is building a regional headquarters in SouthPark, also turned a profit for the year: $4.5 million for common shareholders, or 45 cents per share, down 18 percent from 2010.

Acquisitions played a big part in the growing company's results. BNC Bancorp incurred $723,000 of one-time expenses associated with merger and acquisition activities in the fourth quarter, for instance, it reported.

The company's assets grew 14 percent last year to $2.45 billion, due to organic growth in North Carolina and assets from the acquisitions of Blue Ridge Savings Bank and Regent Bank of South Carolina. The bank has been expanding in recent years with the help of a $35 million investment in June 2010 from New York private equity firm Aquiline Capital Partners, where former Wachovia chief executive Ken Thompson is a senior adviser.

Thompson now sits on BNC Bancorp's board of directors.

Loans and deposits grew last year and credit improved, though the company is still looking for improvement in its loan portfolio, CEO W. Swope Montgomery Jr. said.