TD Bank today reported lower fourth-quarter profit as a $138 million tax charge on its reorganization of the TD Waterhouse discount brokerage pulled down earnings.

The bank said it made $589 million, or 82¢ a share, during the quarter ended Oct. 31, 2005 down from $595 million, or 90¢ a share a year earlier.

Stripping out a number of items, including a $138 million charge related to a reorganization of TD Waterhouse, profit was $1.06 per share, the bank said.

The matched a consensus earnings forecast of analysts polled by Thomson Financial.

TD said its return on total common equity on an annualized basis was 14.8%, compared with 19.1% in the same quarter last year.

Income from TD domestic branch-banking network rose 16% to $443 million, while wealth management income more than doubled to $136 million.

The bank earned $69 million from its Maine-based TD Banknorth unit, which TD acquired earlier this year.

However, earnings from the wholesale banking unit dropped 66% to $41 million, hurt by weak capital markets in October and the bank’s exit from certain structured derivative portfolios.

Loan-loss provisions for the quarter were $94 million, up from $82 million, while return on equity was 14.8%, compared with 19.1% in the year-before quarter.

“With TD Canada Trust and TD Waterhouse leading the way, we executed well in the fourth quarter and that translated into solid earnings performance,” said Ed Clark, TD president and CEO, in a release.

For the full year, TD’s earnings per share dipped to $3.20 from $3.39. Analysts had been looking for $4.12 a share before special items.

TD is selling TD Waterhouse USA to Ameritrade in a US$2.9 billion deal. TD said it expects to report a gain of about US$1 billion after-tax on the Ameritrade deal in the first quarter of 2006.