Countrywide Reports Record 2Q Earnings

Countrywide Credit Industries Inc., Calabasas, Calif., has reported record unaudited earnings of $95.1 million for the fiscal second quarter ended Aug. 31, up 27% from $74.7 million (from ongoing operations) a year earlier.Earnings per share were $0.81, up from $0.67 (from ongoing operations) a year before, Countrywide said. Angelo M. Mozilo, Countrywide's CEO, said the highlight among many production records set during the quarter was record fundings of $22.9 billion, up 117% from a year before. "While this is predominantly a refinance market, purchase mortgage fundings also reached an all-time high of $11.5 billion during the quarter," Mr. Mozilo said. "This is especially significant since demand for purchase mortgages is less sensitive than refinance volume to interest rates." Subprime and home equity loans accounted for 14% of the production sector's pretax profits, he said. Countrywide's servicing portfolio was $195 billion at the end of the quarter with a weighted average coupon of 7.7%, and prepayments and servicing hedge performance "were in line with expectations based on the current rate environment," Mr. Mozilo said. Countrywide's website address is http://www.countrywide.com.