Brad Kessel
Analyst · Janney. Please go ahead
Good morning. Thank you for joining Independent Bank Corporation's conference call and webcast to discuss the company's 2020 second quarter results. I am Brad Kessel, President and Chief Executive Officer; and joining me is Rob Shuster, who rejoined Independent Bank Corporation as Chief Financial Officer last month. We are very appreciative to have Rob rejoin our team as we work to permanently fill the position vacated with the resignation of Steve Erickson. Also joining us today is Jim Mack, Executive Vice President and Head of Commercial Banking for our company. Before I begin today's call, it is my responsibility to direct you to the important information on Page 2 for the cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements. If anyone does not already have a copy of the press release issued by Independent today, you can access it at the company's Web site, independentbank.com. The agenda for today's call will include prepared remarks followed by a question-and-answer session and then closing remarks. Before we begin reviewing our financial results, I'd like to take a moment to pause and recognize the very difficult period of time this past quarter has been for our country, our communities and our associates. Too many lives have been lost or negatively impacted by the coronavirus as have too many lives have been lost or negatively impacted by racism and social inequity. This period of crisis does hold opportunity for positive change. We are thankful to our customers, employees and our Board of Directors. The hope, patience and perseverance that all of you as the Independent Bank Corporation community have demonstrated is simply amazing. To all of them and to you, our investors and analysts, I hope that you and your families are and remain safe and healthy during these difficult times. Our efforts to keep our customers and employees safe in this environment began on March 3, 2020 when we enacted our business continuity plan to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. On March 10, 2020, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services identified the first two positive cases of COVID-19 in Michigan. Since then, as of July 27, the U.S. CDC reports Michigan with 71,019 cases and 6,151 deaths due to the coronavirus, while Ohio reports 84,073 positive cases and 3,307 deaths. On Page 4 of our slide presentation, we have some of the actions that we have taken since the start of COVID-19 to protect our employees, clients, vendors and the communities we serve. Turning to the financial highlights on Page 6, I am extremely pleased to report a very strong financial performance in the second quarter of 2020, despite the many challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. In my opinion, our associates did an amazing job during this quarter. We closed nearly one-half billion dollars of mortgage loans, helping our customers to buy new homes or refinance existing mortgage loans. We closed over 250 million of PPP loans, helping our customers to keep their employees on the payroll and their businesses operating. We actively administered over 1,700 forbearance plans to help our business and retail customers who have been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We continued to effectively operate our Business Continuity Plan to safely serve our customers and protect our employees. Finally, we maintained solid asset quality metrics during the second quarter of 2020, and in fact continued to build loan loss reserves. Excluding PPP loans and the remaining Traverse City State Bank acquired loan balances, the allowance for loan losses was equal to 1.38% of portfolio loans at June 30, 2020. Net income was $14.8 million or $0.67 per diluted share in the second quarter of 2020 versus $10.7 million or $0.46 per diluted share for the year ago quarter. For the six months ended June 30, 2020, the company earned $19.6 million or $0.88 per diluted share compared to net income of $20.1 million or $0.85 per diluted share in the prior year period. On the balance sheet side, total assets grew to $4.04 billion at June 30, an increase of $478.6 million from December 31, 2019. For the second quarter of 2020, our loan portfolio increased by $148.5 million, while our securities available for sale increased by $262 million. Total deposits grew $401.6 million during the quarter of 2020. Excluding brokered CDs, this deposit growth increases to $424.8 million. Also important for us during the second quarter was our issuance of 40 million of subordinated notes qualifying Tier 2 capital with a 10-year maturity, a five-year call option and an initial coupon interest rate of 5.95%. The purpose of this issuance was for general corporate purposes and provides additional liquidity at the bank holding company level. Slide 7 provides a view of our Michigan markets. Despite the unexpected challenges brought on by the pandemic, we continued to execute on our longer-term strategic objectives, including ongoing branch optimization and a digital transformation. As it pertains to branch optimization, we closed two branch locations on June 26, 2020 and an additional six locations are closing July 31. During the second quarter and for the six months of 2020, we recognized branch closure costs of $417,000, primarily due to the write-down of fixed assets and lease assets. As a result of these eight branch closures, we anticipate annual pre-tax savings of approximately $1.3 million, respectively. This brings our total branch count to an even 60 locations. Turning to Page 8, we display several key economic statistics reflecting the literal shutdown of the Michigan economy during the second quarter of 2020. The Governor of Michigan issued her first Stay Home, Stay Safe executive order effective March 24. In general, that order and subsequent modifications required individuals in Michigan to stay at home or the place of residence, except for certain specified activities that were deemed necessary to sustain or protect life. That original executive order was amended several times and has since been rescinded and replaced entirely by a series of safer at home executive orders, which generally extended certain social distancing restrictions that lifted the requirement that individuals remain in their homes. Under the current order, certain retail operations, restaurants and bars and other businesses are committed to resume in-person operations, subject to capacity limitations and other workplace safety requirements. In addition for both the state of Michigan and the state of Ohio, protective masks are required to be worn in public facilities and for larger gatherings outside. The degree to which business may resume operations varies based on the region of the state in which they are located, pursuant to the Governor's Michigan Safe Start Plan. Arguably, Michigan's shutdown was broader and longer than many other states. As a result, Michigan's unemployment rate is currently reported much higher than the U.S. unemployment rate. At this time, it is unclear as to how long Michigan's unemployment rate will be elevated as well as the pandemic's overall impact on the Michigan economy. On Page 9, we provide a couple of charts reflecting the composition of our deposit base as well as the continued growth in its portfolio, while working to effectively manage our overall cost of funds. Since December 31, 2019, our deposits, excluding brokered CDs, have increased by $506.6 million with $425 million of this increase taking place during the second quarter. The largest category increasing on a linked quarter basis was our non-interest-bearing business deposits, followed by savings and interest-bearing checking within the retail portfolio. Some of the second quarter increase was related to the deposit of PPP-related funds. However, it is very difficult to determine how much of the overall deposit increase will stay in the bank and for how long. Accordingly, we have invested these balances in very liquid, relatively short duration assets generating high levels of cash payments. Our total cost of deposits decreased by 33 basis points on a linked quarter basis, and is down 53 basis points when comparing to the same quarter one year ago. On Page 10, we provide an update on our loan portfolio. Total loans increased by $148.5 million for the quarter, and now aggregate to $2.87 billion at June 30, 2020. This excludes loans held for sale of $84 million. The increase was entirely related to PPP loans within our commercial portfolio, offset by declines in our mortgage and installment portfolios. The commercial portfolio grew by $181.4 million during the quarter. Again, this increase was primarily PPP-related that was offset by significant paydowns, payoffs and a reduction in line utilization. That line utilization decreased to 30.9% at June 30 from 40.2% the prior quarter end. Total mortgage originations for the quarter were $470.6 million compared to $241.4 million in the second quarter of 2019, reflecting the impact that lower rates have had on the refinancing market. Portfolio mortgage loans decreased by 28.3 million for the quarter due to portfolio paydowns and a higher salable mix for new loan origination volume. On Page 11, we have an update on our modification in forbearance activities and our participation in the Paycheck Protection Program. We take pride in being supportive of our customers and communities are actively assisting those experiencing financial difficulty. At June 30, 2020, we have payment deferrals to 259 commercial customers and 210.5 million in loans or 15.4% of our portfolio. Commercial forbearances are generally for principal payment only with interest payments continuing to be made. On the retail side, we have forbearance agreements with 388 portfolio mortgage loan customers with 81.2 million in balances or 7.8% of the mortgage loan portfolio and 280 installment loan customers with 7.4 million in balances or 1.6% of the installment loan portfolio. Retail forbearance plans are primarily for both principal and interest payments for up to 90 days. Updating these metrics for the retail side as of this week, we now are down to 506 portfolio forbearances aggregating to a little under $69 million. With regards to the Paycheck Protection Program, we built an effective process to manage the high-volume of applications for loans as well as the applications for loan forgiveness. As of June 30, we had 2,012 PPP loans for 259 million outstanding and there was approximately 7.7 million of the remaining unaccreted net fees related to PPP loans. We expect these fees to be accretive into interest income over the next 20 months. On Page 12, we are displaying the concentrations or makeup of our entire commercial loan portfolio. The chart on the left segmented by industry category reflects our C&I portfolio, including owner-occupied commercial real estate loans. The chart on the right segmented by collateral type reflects our investor real estate loans. The percentages shown on both of these charts aggregate to 100% of the entire 1.36 billion commercial portfolio. The portfolio is very granular in nature with the largest concentrations in C&I being manufacturing at 11%, construction at 9% and retail at 7%. Within the CRE portfolio, the largest concentration is retail at 6%. We believe this portfolio is holding up very well, including loans in those industry sectors who’s business has been more negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Page 13 provides an overview of our investments at June 30, 2020 and activity within the portfolio during the quarter. Investment securities available for sale increased $262 million during the quarter. The portfolio is a very high-quality with 85% of the portfolio rated AA or better. Additionally, the portfolio is generally shorter term in nature with an estimated average duration of 2.47 years in weighted average yield of 2.32%. In terms of capital management, our capital levels continue to be strong with tangible common equity to tangible assets of 8.03% at June 30, 2020. This is a bit below the bottom of our targeted range of 8.5% to 9.5%, primarily as a result of larger than previously planned growth in total assets during the first half of 2020. We do anticipate moving back into our targeted TCE range by the end of 2020, due to a decrease in total assets in part because of anticipated PPP loan payoffs as well as an increase in overall tangible capital through earnings. We paid a quarterly cash dividend of $0.20 per share at May 15, 2020, and recently declared a $0.20 dividend on July 21 payable on August 14 as we believe that our capital levels currently support the continuation of our dividend program. During the first quarter of 2020, we repurchased 678,929 shares through March 16, before suspending the buyback in response to uncertain economic environment. At this time, I would like to turn the presentation over to Rob who will share a few comments on our financials, credit quality, CECL and our outlook for the second half of 2020.