DOW JONES NEWSWIRES First Horizon National Corp.'s (FHN) fourth-quarter loss widened as the parent of First Tennessee Bank saw revenue fall and booked a hefty restructuring charge. The company said it still was dealing with "a challenging economy" in the fourth quarter, though Chief Executive Bryan Jordan said First Horizon "made significant progress in executing our strategic plan" to make the company profitable in the longer term. The company has cut back mortgage banking and gotten rid of branches outside its Tennessee home base since the subprime implosion and homeowner-woes stymied a plan to boost the company's mortgage business. First Horizon posted a loss of $70.6 million, or 32 cents a share, wider than its prior-year loss of $63.1 million, or 29 cents. The most-recent quarter's results included charges of $31.2 million related to the company's restructuring. Revenue dropped 18% to $436.1 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting a loss of 21 cents on $456 million in revenue. Loan-loss provisions were $135 million, down from a year-earlier $280 million and $185 million the prior quarter. The net charge-off rate rose to 4% from 3.61% a year earlier but fell from 4.24% sequentially. Nonperforming assets, or loans that may go bad, totaled $1.05 billion, down from $1.16 billion and $1.22 billion, respectively. The tangible common equity ratio--which measures how much of a bank's hard assets its common shareholders own--was 7.75%, compared with 7.34% and 7.85%. Shares closed at $13.63 Friday and were inactive premarket. -By Nathan Becker, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2855; nathan.becker@dowjones.com
