BankAmerica Shows Strong First Quarter : Banking: On first anniversary of merger with Security Pacific, it records a 60% jump in profit.

BankAmerica Corp., celebrating the one-year anniversary of its huge merger with Security Pacific Corp., said Thursday that its first-quarter profit jumped 60% compared with the first three months of 1992.

The San Francisco-based parent of Bank of America said the earnings gain--to $484 million from $303 million--came on a 54% surge in the company’s assets, thanks largely to the merger.

In Los Angeles, meanwhile, California Federal Bank extended its recent rebound by posting a first-quarter profit of $10.5 million, compared with an operating loss of $2.9 million a year earlier. (The thrift had a $16-million gain from discontinued operations a year ago that boosted its net income in that quarter to $13.1 million.)

Calfed also said its capital, or cushion against future losses, has climbed above regulators’ requirements for the thrift, and its stock spurted $1.625 a share, to $18.75, in New York Stock Exchange trading.

Despite BankAmerica’s first-quarter gains, Chairman Richard M. Rosenberg cautioned that the continued woes of the California economy “remain a source of concern.� Nonetheless, BankAmerica said it wrote off $303 million in loan losses in the first quarter, compared with $501 million in the last quarter of 1992.

Although the bank’s first-quarter profit rose sharply, the earnings-per-share slipped to $1.19 from $1.22 because BankAmerica has 54% more shares of common stock outstanding than a year ago.

The results were about as expected on Wall Street, and BankAmerica also argued that comparing its overall year-to-year results is not particularly useful because the Security Pacific deal had not yet been completed in the first quarter of 1992.

BankAmerica has also incurred substantial one-time costs since then related to closing branches and otherwise merging Security Pacific’s business with its own.

But the company’s figures suggest BankAmerica, the nation’s second-largest banking concern behind Citicorp, has been able to maintain the same earning power it had a year ago despite the problems of digesting the merger.

For instance, even though BankAmerica’s assets jumped to $184 billion from $120 billion a year ago, the bank’s return on those assets edged up to 1.06% from 1.03%. The ratio measures how profitably a bank employs the assets at its disposal, and a reading of 1% or higher is a strong showing.

“The results were solid, in line with expectations,� said David Barry, an analyst with the investment firm Keefe Bruyette & Woods in New York. “It’s a holding period while they finish putting the Security Pacific merger together.�

After that, he said, BankAmerica’s profits “should do well once the California economy gets back on its feet.�

Separately, BankAmerica said it will move 1,100 of its New York employees into the World Trade Center, becoming the first major new tenant since the office complex was rocked by a terrorist bombing in late February.

Calfed said that in addition to its latest earnings, the thrift continued to whittle away at its mountain of bad loans. “Non-performing� assets slipped to 7.09% of Calfed’s $16.8 billion in assets, from 7.11% on Dec. 31.

Calfed in recent months has shored up its capital base with the help of a debt-for-equity swap and a sale of preferred stock.