Dennis Zember
Analyst · KBW. Please go ahead
Thank you, Denise, and good morning, and thank you for joining us on this Ameris Bank investor relations conference call. Before we begin, let remind you that some of our comments during this call may be forward-looking statements, which involve risk and uncertainty. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ from the anticipated results of other expectations expressed in the forward-looking statement. Those factors include interest rate fluctuations, regulatory changes, portfolio performance and other factors discussed in our filings with the SEC. We undertake no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes to future operating results over time. Also on investor presentation and outline, and the agreements relating to the acquisitions can be found on the SEC’s website. Obviously, the purpose of the call is to discuss the pending acquisitions and the private placements. But before I turn it back to Ed on that, let me give you a quick run-down on our financial results. We finished 2014 with total assets of just over $4 billion, up about 10% from the year earlier, thanks mostly to the acquisition of Coastal Bankshares in mid-2014. Total loans grew during the year to $2.9 billion, compared to $2.5 billion at the same time in 2013. Loan growth, when you exclude covered, rental activity and the acquisition of Coastal came in at 9.8%, which was close to where we had been projecting. Loan activity in the fourth quarter was strong, when you consider the seasonal payoffs we experienced in ag and municipal credits. Total deposits ended at $3.4 billion, up 14% from the beginning of the year. About 40% of the growth we had in total deposit came from non-interest bearing deposits which finished the year about 25% of total deposits. At the end of 2014, tangible common equity totaled $294 million, compared to $247.7 [ph] million at the beginning of the year. Tangible book value per share grew from $9.87 to $10.99 at the end of 2014. Our TCE ratio improved as well, we started the year at 6.83% and then finished the year at 7.42%. As far as net income for the year, we reported operating earnings of $41 million or $1.56 per share, compared to $21.4 million or $0.89 per share in 2013. During the fourth quarter, we reported operating earnings of $10.6 million or $0.39 per share, compared to $3.8 million or $0.16 for the same quarter in 2013. Operating earnings, the only thing we’re excluding when we refer to operating earnings are merger-related charges which were $2.6 million in 2014. The significant improvement in total operating earnings relates to several factors. First, the acquisition of Prosperity Bank in late 2013 and Coastal Bank in 2014 improved our earnings per share as we had planned. Other than improvement from acquisitions we experienced lower levels of credit costs, significantly improved mortgage results, stable margins and generally improved profitability across most of our markets. Speaking of margins, our net interest margin excluding accretion was pretty stable during 2014. During the fourth quarter, margin again without accretion was 4.17%, which was unchanged from the third quarter and we stand only about 4 basis points from the first quarter of 2014. The stability in the margin comes mostly from land deals which are held in there. In the fourth quarter loans on the liability side yielded 4.94% which was really only about 10 basis points from where the quarter’s production came in and accounted for most of the stability in the margin. Deposit cost had been pretty flat during the year and came in at 30 basis points for the fourth quarter. With the recent fall in interest rates we’ve taken another look at our deposit costs and I believe there is some room for us to move a little lower without putting any of the balances at risk. Non-interest income continues to be something that we’re proud of. Non-interest income increased substantially again in 2014 to almost $63 million, a 35% increase from what we reported in 2013. Obviously, the success with our mortgage company dropped a lot of that. The profitability for mortgage increased substantially and we’ll refer to that in a second. Total mortgage - non-interest income, excuse me, for mortgage totaled just over $25 million. Our net income from mortgage was about $6.2 million, that’s after tax and fully loaded with overhead. Mortgage net income grew at twice the rate of their revenue during 2014. We believe that symbolizes the mature state of business for our company. Besides the growth in mortgage, we had an increase in SBA revenues of about $2.5 million, and an increase in deposit related charges of [Technical Difficulty] were $150 million, compared $121 million in 2013. Excluding merger charges and credit costs the operating expenses grew almost $27 million during 2014 as we integrated the additional branches and assets from the Coastal and Prosperity deal. During the fourth quarter we incurred about $1.2 million of non-recurring expenses related to some administrative restructurings and consulting services. Also we took an aggressive mark on some lingering OREOs and took charge of about $2.2 million for related write-downs. Ed and I do anticipate some level of occurring credit costs going forward but we do not believe that fourth quarter’s credit costs are indicative of where credit costs are headed. So in inclusion I’d note that our operating return on average assets improved to approximately 1.1% compared to 80 basis points in 2013. Return on tangible common equity increased to 15.5%, compared to 9.3% in 2013. We are pleased with these results in how we’re positioned going into 2015. And we obviously we see room for improvement in several areas we are intensely focused on those areas. But we’re delighted with what we accomplished in the past year. With that quick report on financial results, I’ll turn the call over to Ed Hortman, President and CEO to discuss the NR [ph].