LOS ANGELES, Aug. 31, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- National Mercantile Bancorp (Nasdaq:MBLA), the holding company for Mercantile National Bank and South Bay Bank, N.A., today announced Scott Montgomery, President & CEO, and David Brown, Chief Financial Officer, will present at the West Coast Super-Community Bank Conference. The presentation will be at 4:20 p.m. PDT on Thursday, September 8, 2005, and the webcast can be viewed at www.super-communitybanking.com/westcoast.htm. In addition, the archived presentation will be available at www.nationalmercbancorp.com
On July 27, the company reported record second quarter profits fueled by increasing net interest margin and solid asset quality. National Mercantile's second quarter earnings nearly tripled to $1.0 million, or $0.22 per diluted share, compared to $345,000, or $0.08 per diluted share in the second quarter of 2004. In the first half of 2005, earnings increased 211% to $2.0 million, or $0.42 per diluted share, compared to $636,000, or $0.14 per diluted share, in the first half a year ago. The financial results are unaudited for the second quarters ended June 30, 2005 and 2004.
The Super-Community Bank Conference will take place in San Francisco at the Pan Pacific Hotel on September 8 and 9, 2005. The West Coast Super-Community Bank Conference is sponsored by leading super community banks and is an interactive investment conference matching small and mid-cap banks with regional sell-side analysts and institutional investors. For more information on the West Coast Super Community Bank Conference visit www.super-communitybanking.com/westcoast.htm
ABOUT NATIONAL MERCANTILE BANCORP
National Mercantile Bancorp is the holding company for Mercantile National Bank and South Bay Bank, with offices located in Century City, Encino, Torrance, El Segundo, Costa Mesa and Beverly Hills, all among California's highest value markets. The banks' focus is on business banking with specialty lending expertise in the entertainment, healthcare, professional services, real estate escrow, business and residential construction, property management industries and community-based non-profit organizations. The company is building a premier business banking franchise with experienced loan officers providing highly personalized service.
This press release contains forward-looking statements about the Company. Forward-looking statements consist of descriptions of plans or objectives for future operations, products or services, forecasts of revenues, earnings or other measures of economic performance and assumptions underlying or relating to any of the foregoing. Because forward-looking statements discuss future events or conditions and not historical facts, they often include words such as "believe," "potential," "confident," "encourage or encouraging," "will be," "anticipate," "estimate" or similar expressions. Do not rely unduly on forward-looking statements. They give the Company's expectations about the future and are not guarantees or predictions of future events, conditions or results. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and the Company does not undertake to update them to reflect changes that occur after that date. Many factors, most beyond the company's control, could cause actual results to differ significantly from the Company's expectations. These factors include, among other things, changes in interest rates, which affect margins, impact funding sources or alter loan demand; increased competitive pressures; changes in national and local economic conditions; fluctuations in the California real estate markets; changes in fiscal policy, monetary policy, legislative or regulatory environments; changes in the credit quality of the Company's loan portfolio, the Company's abilities to realize further efficiencies and achieve growth targets, and finalization of year-end audit results. These and other factors are discussed in greater detail in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-KSB for the year ended December 31, 2004.