Oak Hill Sells Portfolio, Shuts Action Finance

Oak Hill Financial Inc., Jackson, Ohio, has reported the sale of the consumer loan portfolio (including second-mortgage loans) of its Action Finance Co. subsidiary for $9.2 million and the closing of its Action Finance operations.As part of the shutdown, Action Finance's five retail lending offices in southern Ohio are being closed, Oak Hill said. The company said it expects to take a one-time after-tax charge of $2.3 million as a result of the sale and discontinuation of operations. "In our region, the market for traditional finance company loans has changed dramatically over the past few years," said R. E. Coffman Jr., Oak Hill's president and chief executive officer. "As a result, we no longer saw a cost-effective path for growth at Action Finance, and we felt that our efforts and resources were better directed toward our bank and insurance subsidiaries." Mr. Coffman said Action's credit quality deteriorated "considerably" over the past year, and chargeoffs ran about twice their historical rate over the past several months.