The parent of Territorial Savings Bank reported a decline in its third quarter earnings largely due to a write-down of some of its debt securities.

The company said yesterday that it earned $729,000 during the three months ending Sept. 30, which was down from $2.4 million in the year-earlier period.

The decrease was due in large part to a $2.7 million pre-tax impairment charge that it took during the quarter to reflect the decline in the value in debt securities that it holds in its investment portfolio.

Shares of Territorial rose 11 cents yesterday to close at $16.70 on the Nasdaq market.

On a per-share basis, the company netted 6 cents. Per-share comparisons with the year-earlier period are not available because Territorial Bancorp only began trading as a public company in July.

Year-to-date, the company earned $5.7 million, which was down from the year-earlier's $6.5 million.

The company reported net assets of about $1.4 billion, which was up 10.8 percent from the last year. Deposits rose 6.7 percent to $985.6 million.

The company said it had about $123.3 million in cash and cash equivalents, which was up from the year-earlier's $11.2 million.

The increase in its cash holdings was largely due to the company's public offering in July.

Territorial shares began trading publicly on July 13 in one of the more successful local IPOs in recent years.

Company shares soared more than 50 percent from $10 to $14.99 on its first day of trading.