Countrywide Touts Record Earnings

Countrywide Credit Industries Inc., Calabasas, Calif., has reported record unaudited earnings of $841.8 million ($6.49 per share) for 2002, up 57% from $537.5 million ($4.34 per share) in the comparable fiscal 12-month period, which ended Nov. 30, 2001.(Countrywide adopted a calendar-year reporting schedule in January 2002.) Pretax earnings by the company's core mortgage banking operations totaled $968 million in 2002, up 45% from $667 million, while pretax earnings from diversified businesses nearly doubled to $375 million, representing 28% of total earnings, the company said. In the fourth quarter, earnings totaled $254.9 million ($1.94 per share), up 58% from $161.0 million ($1.27 per share) in the fiscal quarter ended Nov. 30, 2001. "Remarkable quarterly and annual operational milestones were established, while setting earnings records in mortgage banking," said Angelo R. Mozilo, Countrywide's chairman and chief executive officer. "Record fundings of $102 billion in the fourth quarter far exceeded prepayments by $50 billion. Annual fundings exceeded prepayments by $123 billion, driving the uninterrupted growth in the servicing portfolio to $452 billion at Dec. 31, 2002." The company can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com.