Zions Bancorp beats Q1 totals by 8.7% over last year

Zions Bancorporation reported an 8.7 percent increase in first-quarter net earnings compared with the period a year earlier.

The Salt Lake City-based company, which has more than 500 offices and about 600 ATMs in 10 Western and Southwestern states, said this week it earned $149.7 million, or $1.36 per diluted common share, in the quarter that ended March 31. That compares with $137.6 million in net earnings, worth $1.28 per diluted common share, in January through March of 2006.

Zions said this year's quarterly results were impacted by the mid-January acquisition of The Stockmen's Bancorp Inc. Stockmen's, which had $1.1 billion in deposits, was incorporated into Zions' subsidiary, the National Bank of Arizona, in February.

Highlights cited in Zions' quarterly report included loan growth of $1.3 billion ($547 million, excluding Stockmen's portfolio of loans), a $559 million increase in core deposits (including $365 million from Stockmen's) and a net interest margin of 4.51 percent, down nine basis points from the fourth quarter of 2006.

Total deposits as of March 31 were $36.3 billion, an increase of $1.3 billion during the quarter and $3.5 billion, or 10.5 percent, since March 31, 2006.

Net interest income for the first quarter of 2007 decreased $2 million to $457.1 million, compared with $459 million for the quarter that ended Dec. 31. But that $457.1 million total represented an increase of $34.2 million, or 8.1 percent, since the end of the first quarter of 2006.

- Mike Gorrell

Oil, gas and mining

Questar attorney Gill named to state oversight board

Ruland J. Gill Jr., vice president of government affairs and a senior attorney for Questar Corp., has been appointed by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. to the seven-member state Board of Oil, Gas and Mining.

Gill replaces James Peacock of the Utah Petroleum Association. Peacock was a board member since 1999, most recently serving as chairman.

A University of Utah graduate with degrees in accounting and law, Gill has legal experience in oil and gas exploration issues and has been involved in Questar's government affairs work for 17 years. He is a former board chairman for the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA).

Gill also has been Utah Petroleum Association president and vice president of the Utah/Idaho branch of the Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Association.

- Mike Gorrell