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Chesapeake Financial Shares reports record earnings

Press release -- for immediate release
For additional information please contact
Jeffrey M. Szyperski -804-435-4249 or 1-800-434-1181

Chesapeake Financial Shares announced earnings through the third quarter of $3,572,734, representing the highest year-to-date earnings in the history of the company. This represents a 2.1% increase over the first nine months of 2008. For the quarter ended September 30, 2009, the company earned $1,481,668 as compared to $1,103,236 for the third quarter of 2008. This represents a 34% increase over the same quarter in the prior year. On an earnings per share basis, Chesapeake Financial Shares earned $1.276 per share as compared to $1.217 for the first nine months of the prior year, representing a 4.8% increase. Quarterly earnings per share were $.533 for 2009 as compared to $.384 in 2008. From a balance sheet perspective, Chesapeake ended the third quarter of September 30, 2009 with total assets of $580,292,229. This is a 7.9% growth in total assets since the beginning of the year.

Jeffrey M. Szyperski, Chairman, President & CEO, noted, “The economic environment continues to be a very tough one for the banking industry. Our strong earnings are primarily a result of having been able to do a good job of maintaining our margin in the current low rate environment, maintaining very strong asset quality, and having spent years developing alternate sources for noninterest income through several of our specialized divisions. Further, our local markets have not taken as strong a hit as have the economic markets nationally.”

“Since our last earnings release, we were named by US Banker as one of the ‘Top 200 Community Banks’ in the country based on return on equity to our shareholders,” continued Szyperski. “This year we moved up to number 64. The strength of earnings as well as our overall well-capitalized status have helped set us apart in the current financial services industry market.”

“Chesapeake Investment Group, our wealth management division, has had an exceptional year thus far,” said Szyperski. “Their overall assets under management have increased 28% since the beginning of the year due to some market appreciation but largely due to new business development. We are finding that our customers tend to be our best source of new business referrals due to our consistent and conservative investment philosophy. We are also the beneficiary of an overall demographic of people wanting to bring their investable assets closer to home and be able to talk with their investment advisors face-to-face. We fully anticipate the continuation of this trend going forward.”

At their quarterly meeting on Friday, October 16, 2009, the Chesapeake Financial Shares, Inc. Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $.105 per share payable on or before December 15, 2009 to shareholders of record as of December 1, 2009. For calendar year 2009, this represents a 3.7% increase in dividends over 2008.

Chesapeake Financial Shares stock is traded under the symbol CPKF. Information on how to buy Chesapeake Financial Shares stock is available on Chesapeake Bank’s website at www.chesbank.com. Also, you are invited to become a fan of Chesapeake Bank on FACEBOOK and follow Chesapeake Bank on TWITTER.

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