New Century Bancorp Announces Second Quarter 2010 Earnings

DUNN, N.C., July 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --

• Net income tops $1.0 million for second quarter 2010.
• Assets, deposits, and loans all experienced positive growth in a year-to-year comparison.
• During the quarter, New Century celebrated its 10th anniversary and kicked off a second decade of service to customers and communities.

New Century Bancorp (the "Company") (Nasdaq: NCBC), the holding company for New Century Bank, reported net income of $1,075,000 for the quarter ended June 30, 2010, compared to a net loss of $253,000 for the same period in 2009. For the six month period ended as of the same date, the Company reported net income of $1,531,000, compared to $155,000 for the same period in 2009. Basic and diluted earnings (loss) per share were $0.16 and ($0.04), respectively, for second quarter 2010 and second quarter 2009, and were $0.22 and $0.02, respectively, for the six month periods ended June 30, 2010, and June 30, 2009.

As of June 30, 2010, the Company held total assets of $663.0 million, total deposits of $566.0 million and total loans of $490.9 million. As of June 30, 2009, these figures stood at total assets of $629.0 million, total deposits of $527.6 million, and total loans of $467.9 million, for increases of 5.4%, 7.3%, and 4.9%, respectively, on a year-to-year basis.

"On behalf of the board of directors and all of our employees, I am pleased to share these quarterly and year-to-date results," said William L. Hedgepeth II, president and chief executive officer. "While these results are extremely positive—and for that we are thankful—we remain cautiously optimistic for many reasons. We must continue to help our customers as they navigate a difficult economy and we must stay the course regarding our Company's goals and the milestones we have before us."

Highlights for the quarter include:

• Improvements in net income were seen in both a year-to-year comparison, and also on a linked quarter basis.
• Net interest margin remained strong at 4.04% for the first half of 2010, compared to 3.21% for the first half of 2009, due to both loan growth and lower cost of funds.
• Key balance sheet items – specifically assets, loans, and deposits – grew, while nonperforming loans dropped to below 3% of total loans outstanding.
• Noninterest expenses were lower for the quarter, helping the Company to report its lowest efficiency ratio in more than a year.

Hedgepeth further shared, "Going forward, growth in noninterest income will be a challenge, as regulatory changes will impact all financial institutions, including community banks such as New Century.  Overall, customers are still experiencing challenges from the recession and, because of that, we are too. Staying the course was what we said we needed to do to come out of this and that is both what we are doing and what we will do for the foreseeable future. It is encouraging to see positive results from our efforts and I commend our management team and staff for their hard work and resilience during tough times.

"During the second quarter we passed the milestone of our 10th anniversary and celebrated accordingly, at the same time kicking off our 'next decade' commitment of helping our customers to power their plans. We know people had hopes, dreams, and plans prior to the recession...and they still do. We want to be the bank people turn to in order to make them happen."

New Century Bank is headquartered in Dunn and has offices in Dunn, Clinton, Fayetteville (2), Goldsboro, Lillington, Lumberton, Pembroke, and Raeford, as well as a loan production office in Greenville, NC.

www.newcenturybanknc.com

The information as of and for the quarter and six months ended June 30, 2010 as presented is unaudited. This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, without limitation, (i) statements regarding certain of our goals and expectations with respect to earnings, earnings per share, revenue, expenses and the growth rate in such items, as well as other measures of economic performance, including statements relating to estimates of credit quality trends, and (ii) statements preceded by, followed by or that include the words "may," "could," "should," "would," "believe," "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "plan," "projects," "outlook" or similar expressions. The actual results might differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements for various reasons, including, but not limited to, our ability to manage growth, our limited operating history, substantial changes in financial markets, regulatory changes, changes in interest rates, loss of deposits and loan demand to other savings and financial institutions, and changes in real estate values and the real estate market.  Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in the Company's SEC filings, including its periodic reports under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, copies of which are available upon request from the Company.

SOURCE New Century Bancorp