Jim Ajello
Analyst · Macquarie Capital. Your line is now open
Thanks Connie. I will briefly comment on Hawaii's economy. September 2015 visitor arrivals reached a new record high in the month of September, up 4.7%, while visitor expenditures were down 1.2% from the same month last year. Year-to-date September 2015 visitor arrivals reached 6.5 million with total spending at $11.3 billion. Tourism is on a record trajectory for 2015. Statewide unemployment edged downward to 3.4% in September of 2015, compared to 4.2% a year ago and still significantly below the national unemployment rate of 5.1% as of September 2015. Recent Hawaii real estate activity remained strong during September 2015 with the median sales price for single-family Oahu homes at $730,000, up 7.6% from last year and up 4% year-to-date in September. This year through September, the pace of home sales on Oahu is up 6.2%. Year-to-date September 2015 construction activity reflected by the value of private building permits increased by 29% compared to year-to-date September 2014. This increase is reflected by the increase in residential, commercial and industrial projects. Overall, Hawaii's year-to-date economic performance is being sustained by continuing strong activity in the construction and tourism industry and the University of Hawaii forecasters expect state GDP to grow 2.8% this year. As shown on slide eight, third quarter 2015 GAAP earnings per share were $0.47. However, core earnings per share which excluded merger and spin expenses were at $0.49 per share compared to $0.47 per share in the third quarter of 2014. Consolidated core net income was $4.1 million higher than the prior year, driven by slightly better utility results. On slide nine, utility earnings were $43 million in the third quarter of 2015, compared to $38.9 million in the third quarter of 2014, $3 million in higher net revenues than the prior year quarter primarily due to $2 million in 2015 revenues attributed to the recovery of costs for clean energy and reliability investments and $1 million for better fuel efficiency performance. $2 million in lower O&M expenses compared to the prior year were largely due to the third quarter of 2014 O&M expenses were elevated by about $6 million after-tax primarily due to the following, consulting costs associated with our regulatory filings last year, storm restoration expenses and the initial phase of our smart grid modernization program. Third quarter of 2015 O&M costs were unfavorably impacted by about $4 million after-tax due to the following, the regulatory decision denying enterprise resource planning software costs, higher maintenance costs including environmental compliance costs, education management cost partially offset by the positive impact of the regulatory approval of the deferral of the interactive voice response system expenses that were previously expensed, $2 million in higher depreciation expense due to the increasing investments in the integration of more renewable energy, improved customer reliability and greater system efficiency. At the bank, net income for the third quarter of 2015 was $13.5 million, $600,000 higher than the linked quarter primarily due to following after-tax, $1 million in higher net interest income primarily driven by higher average interest-earning assets and a favorable shift to higher yielding assets and $1 million in higher noninterest income primarily due to the gain on sale of an American service center building vacated as part of the bank's facilities consolidation plan. These were partially offset by $1 million in higher provision for loan losses primarily due to strong loan growth in the quarter and then $1 million in higher noninterest expense. Compared to the third quarter of 2014, net income was $200,000 higher primarily driven by the following after-tax, $1 million in higher net interest income in the third quarter 2015 primarily due to higher average interest earning assets, $2 million in higher noninterest income primarily from the gain on sale of real estate and higher fee income on deposit products and mortgage banking in the third quarter of 2015. These were offset by $1 million in higher provisions for loan losses on higher loan growth and then $2 million in higher noninterest expense in the third quarter of 2015 due primarily to higher pension and benefits expense. As shown here on slide 10, HEI's core ROE for the last 12 months was 9.1% with ROE contributions of 7.9% from utility and 9.5% from the bank. Slide 11 shows the utility's actual ROEs for the last 12 months. The consolidated core utility ROE of 7.9% declined from 9% in September 2014, primarily due to higher O&M and depreciation expense, partially offset by the RAM increase. On slide 12, you can see that American continues to deliver solid profitability metrics generally in line with its targets. We have maintained a competitive return on assets of 92 basis points year-to-date September 30. Year-to-date annualized loan growth of 3% is just below our mid-single-digit loan growth target, but our third quarter strong 7% annualized loan growth was driven primarily by higher commercial real estate, commercial construction and residential loans and home equity lines of credit, offset by payoffs in the commercial markets portfolio. Year-to-date net interest margin of 3.52% remains in line with expectations. Year-to-date credit cost remained low with a year-to-date net charge-off ratio of eight basis points as a result of our solid asset quality and strong risk management. Overall, the bank continues to maintain its low-risk profile, strong balance sheet, straightforward community banking business model. On slide 13, our net interest margin was 3.53% in line with the third quarter of 2015, one basis point higher than the linked quarter. Our interest earning asset yield improved by two basis points and our liability cost of 22 basis points remains low and unchanged from the linked quarter. On slide 14, third quarter 2015 noninterest income was positively impacted by the $2 million gain on sale of the American service center building vacated as part of the facilities consolidation plan in other income. Fee income on deposit liabilities continued to improve due to deposit related initiatives offset by lower mortgage banking income in the current quarter. Credit quality continues to be strong, reflecting prudent credit risk management and the healthy local economy. Third quarter 2015 net charge-off ratio was 10 basis points, one basis point lower than the linked quarter. Provision for loan losses was higher than the linked quarter mainly due to loan growth in the commercial real estate portfolio. The allowance for loan losses was 1.06% of outstanding loans at $48.3 million at quarter-end compared to 1.04% at the end of the linked quarter and 1% as of the third quarter last year. On Slide 16, American's nonperforming assets ratio of 1% at the end of the third quarter 2015 was 30 basis points higher than the end of the second quarter of 2015 and 0.88% at the end of the third quarter last year. The increase in the third quarter of 2015 was primarily due to two commercial borrowers who are still payment current. Slide 17 illustrates American's continued attractive asset and funding mix relative to our peer banks. American September 30, 2015 balance sheet is stacked against the last complete available dataset of our peers which is as of June 2015. 98% of our loan portfolio was funded with low-cost core deposits versus the aggregate of our peer banks at 88%. Year-to-date total deposits increased by $203 million or 5.8% annualized, while maintaining a very low cost of funds at 22 basis points, 15 basis points lower than the median for our peers. American remains well-capitalized at September 30 with a leverage ratio of 8.8%, tangible common equity to tangible assets ratio of 8.2% and total capital ratio of 13.4%. In the third quarter, American paid $7.5 million in dividends to HEI while maintaining healthy capital levels. Now I will address HEI's outlook for the balance of 2015. We are revising HEI's prior earnings guidance range per share, excluding any expenses relating to the pending merger and spin-off transactions. At the utility, last quarter we guided towards the lower end of the range of $1.30 to $1.35 to offset the impact of the PUC's May 28 decoupling order while we work towards carefully managing expenses. At the same time, we revised our O&M guidance to approximately 2% decline compared to 2014 levels instead of a 2% increase. However the expected recent $5 million write-off previously incurred enterprise resource software planning and other costs, we are revising our utility guidance range down to $1.25 to $1.30, as the headwinds of the lower RAM revenues and lower AFUDC along with the software write-off are not expected to be entirely offset by lower expenses and better fuel efficiency. And as we previously mentioned, we are revising our 2015 CapEx estimate to $310 million from $250 million and revising our 2015 rate base growth to 2% to 3%, assuming no bonus depreciation. We will provide an updated view of our 2016 and 2017 CapEx forecast in our fourth quarter 2015 earnings call. At the bank, we are narrowing our EPS guidance range to $0.50 to $0.52 from $0.50 to $0.54. For the holding company and other segment loss, we are revising the guidance range to a loss of $0.15 to $0.16 from $0.16 to $0.17 due primarily to lower interest and G&A expense. As a result of these changes, we are revising HEI's consolidated EPS guidance range to a narrower range of $1.60 to $1.66 from our guidance last quarter of full-year expectations at the lower end of the original range of $1.64 to $1.74. Finally, as we disclosed this morning in the course of preparing our third quarter 2015 financial statements, HEI and Hawaiian Electric Company management discovered that certain historical amounts on our consolidated statements of cash flow related to cash funded capital expenditures and changes in accounts payable had been misstated. In order to correct the reported amounts of the affected historical periods, HEI's and Hawaiian Electric Company' consolidated statements of cash flow will be restated or revised as appropriate for the following periods, the three months ended March 31, 2015 and 2014, the six months ended June 30, 2015 and 2014 and nine months ended September 30, 2014 and the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012. As a result of these misstatements, HEI's and Hawaiian Electric Company's consolidated net cash provided by operating activities were understated for the years 2012 to 2014, approximately by $45 million, $40 million and $25 million, respectively and by approximately $65 million for both the first three and six months of 2015, respectively. Similarly, HEI's and Hawaiian Electric Company's consolidated net cash used in investing activities due to capital expenditures were also understated by the corresponding amounts in the respective time periods. Our restatements and revisions will report higher cash inflows from operations, as well as greater outflows of cash invested in capital expenditures, which net out for the periods affected for the statements cash flows both HEI and Hawaiian Electric Company. These misstatements only impact the statement of cash flows and the changes will not impact our consolidated cash balances or other items as presented on our historical balance sheets nor will there be any impact on the historical income statements as reported. Furthermore, the restatements and revisions did not and will not have any impact on HEI's and Hawaiian Electric Company's obligations nor upon utility customer rates. Connie, now I will turn the call back to you.