OKLAHOMA BRIEFS

Work begins on south OKC hospital

Construction is set to begin next week on a second Mercy Hospital in south Oklahoma City.

The new full-service hospital will be the first to be built in Oklahoma City limits since 1974.

The $150 million project at the southwest corner of Interstate 240 and Sooner Road will include a sixstory, 228,000-square-foot patient tower, space for up to 72 patient beds, an intensive care unit and surgery suites.

The hospital will be built on the campus of Oklahoma Heart Hospital South and is expected to open in 2020.

BOK reports third-quarter profits

TULSA — BOK Financial Corp., parent of Oklahoma’s largest bank, booked a profit of $85.6 million, or $1.31 per share, in the third quarter, it reported Wednesday.

That compared to a net income of $74.3 million, or $1.13 per share, in the same period last year.

BOK Financial CEO Steven G. Bradshaw described the period as “another very strong quarter.”

“The earnings momentum we’ve demonstrated in 2017 continued through the third quarter. Net interest margin continued to expand as a result of the June 2017 Federal Reserve rate hike, combined with deposit pricing discipline across the banking industry,” Bradshaw said.

Bradshaw said corporate leaders expect many of the current market trends to continue, including a favorable rate environment and strong revenue growth.

Bad weather from Hurricane Harvey in Houston and a tornado that struck one of the company’s Tulsa facilities dropped earnings by $2.4 million during the quarter, Bradshaw said.

Share of BOK Financial, which operates Bank of Oklahoma and banks in several other states, fell about 3.8 percent Wednesday to close at $87.15.