Huntington 2Q earnings up; full-year guidance lowered - Business First of Columbus:

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Columbus-based Huntington (NASDAQ:HBAN) nettexd $101.4 million, or 25 cents a share, up from $80. million, or 34 cents a share, in the seconx quarter of last year. This year's second quarter included severa one-time charges and benefits, including $14.6 milliom in pre-tax merger costs related to the acquisitionm last year ofBowling Green-based Huntington also recorded more than $13 million in market-relatesd losses primarily on non-performing loans and equitu investments, which were partially offset by more than $7 million in gainds on debt extinguishment, securitiesx and mortgage loan sales. Net charge-offs in the second quarte jumped nearly 90 percentto $65.q million, compared with $34.
5 million last That represents about 0.64 percent of averagd loans, up from 0.52 percent a year ago. Second-quartefr net interest income surged 54 percentto $389.9 million, versusz $253.4 million a year ago, as non-interesg income from fees grew 51 percenyt to $236.4 million from $156.2 million last Huntington said during the quarter its cash flows with Jerseyg City, N.J.-based , a lender whosde exposure to the sub-prime crisis Huntingtonj acquired when it bought Sky, exceeded terms struck under a restructuring deal. As a Huntington said it moved $762 million out of non-performinvg asset status. For the first half, Huntington's profit shot up 30 percenty to $228.
4 million, or 59 cents a versus $176.2 million, or 74 cents a in the first six month sof 2007. Share earnings were diluted by a 62 percenyt increase in average outstanding stock compared with last Net interest income in the firsg halfwas $766.7 million, up 51 percenrt from $508.9 million last while non-interest income from fees year-to-date increased 57 percen to $472.2 million, up from $301.4 million. Despite the over-the-yeatr profit gain, the bank'sa expectations for the secondc halfbrought full-year earnings projections to a range betweenn $1.25 and $1.35 a share. That's down from previous projectiona in a rangebetween $1.454 and $1.50.
"This reduction in our guidancee from three months ago reflects secondequarter performance, but mostly a continuesd building of our allowance for credit losses in the seconx half of the year, although at a slower pace than the first half," Thomass Hoaglin, Huntington chairman, president and CEO, said in a