Welcome to the Seacoast Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. My name is Ellen and I will be your operator for today’s call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Before we begin, I have been asked to direct your attention to the statement contained at the end of the press release regarding forward-looking statements. Seacoast will be discussing issues that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities and Exchange Act, and their comments today are intended to be covered within the meaning of that act. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Dennis Hudson, Chairman and CEO, Seacoast Bank. Mr. Hudson, you may begin.

Thank you very much. Good morning everybody and thank for joining the Seacoast fourth quarter and full-year 2017 conference call. Our press release, which we distributed yesterday after the market close and our investor presentation can be found on the investor portion of our website under the title Presentations. Chuck Shaffer, our Chief Financial Officer and Head of Strategy, is with us here today, and will discuss our financial and operating results. Julie Kleffel, our Community Banking Executive; Chuck Cross, our Commercial Banking Executive; David Houdeshell, our Risk and Credit Officer; and Jeff Lee, our Chief Marketing and Analytics Officer are also on the call with us here today. 2017 was an outstanding year for Seacoast. We find time and time again that our balanced growth strategy, which includes investing in organic growth, while completing sound acquisitions continues to be effective in unlocking significant value within our banking franchise. This prudent approach to M&A has enabled us to enter the Tampa market, as well as strengthen our position in South Florida. We are executing on our ambitious growth initiatives without losing focus on cost controls and prudent risk management. We made significant progress towards the operating goals we outlined last February as part of our Vision 2020. For the full-year, Seacoast generated net revenue of $220 million, an increase of 24% and achieved $55.3 million in adjusted net income, an increase of 42%, compared to the prior year. We reported $1.28 in adjusted earnings per share meeting our target range despite the impact of Hurricane Irma. We also delivered meaningful shareholder value increasing our tangible book value per share to $11.15 from $9.37 last year. That’s an increase of 19%. I also want to point out that we are remaining true to our credit guardrails and preserving the granularity of…

Thank you, Denny and thank you all for joining us this morning. As I provide my comments, I’ll reference the fourth quarter earnings slide deck which can be found at seacoastbanking.com. Starting with Slide 5, we had an outstanding year, executing on our strategy and driving strong financial performance. Adjusted net revenue increased 24% year-over-year to $220 million and adjusted net income was up 42% to $55.3 million. Sequentially, adjusted net revenue increased 4% or $2.4 million and adjusted net income was up 14% or $2.1 million. We overcame disruptive challenges from hurricanes and generated $1.28 of adjusted earnings per share, a 23% increase from the prior year. Adjusted return on tangible common equity ended the quarter at 13.5%. Adjusted return on tangible assets was 1.23%. And the adjusted efficiency ratio declined to 52.6%. All three-metrics improved significantly year-over-year and this improvement demonstrates material progress towards our Vision 2020 objectives. And additionally, we increased our tangible book value per share as Denny mentioned by 19% from $9.37 to $11.15 per share at year-end. Looking back at our results over the past year, there is clear evidence that our balance growth strategy, a combination of both organic growth and accretive acquisitions created meaningful value for shareholders. Early in 2017, we gauged an equity transaction that includes the issuance of 50 million of new equity to support growth and during the year, this capital was employed productively offsetting the initial EPS solution from the share issuance. Some of this capital was used to close on three accretive acquisitions extending the Seacoast franchise into Tampa with the GulfShore and NorthStar purchases and strengthening our presence in South Florida with the Palm Beach Community Bank acquisition. Turning to Side 6, four notable items effected the fourth quarter and full-year results. First, as a result…

Thank you, Chuck. And we’d be pleased to take a few questions now. Operator?

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Stephen Scouten with Sandler O'Neill.

Hi guys, good morning. How are you doing?

Hi Steve.

Question here, is it regards NIM Chuck, I think I understood your forward guidance 3 to 4 bips on each rate hikes, it kind of gets us mid 370s and maybe higher mid 370s by year-end, my question I guess is relative to this quarter, was there anything unique or surprising that led the NIM down? I was kind of thinking it was going to be up quarter-over-quarter based off what was said in 3Q, or is that just kind of the moving parts around the two deals coming on and just some nuances there?

Yes, you are correct, and we guided to the mid-370s on last quarter's call. I think, the quarter was noisy with the Hurricanes. A lot of the loan production we thought would get booked early in the quarter, got delayed to late in the quarter, so if you are going to look at something unique that was the unique activity during the quarter. And we did have a couple of public fund relationships that raised their hand and kind of asked to be repriced and that came through during the quarter as well.

Okay. That’s helpful and actually maybe following up on that public funds, what are the balances of the public funds you have currently? And yours kind of priced in that, I guess what I'm hearing from most fields like 150, 160 today, is that pretty fair?

Yes, I don't have the number in front of me on the balance public funds. Steve I’ll send it to you. If you look in our earnings release on the slide with core customer funding it breaks it out, I’d have to add to number up here in front of me, but it is there available to you.

Okay great. And then pricing, is it kind of that 150, 160 still or are you guys able to, I don’t know mitigate that in any way?

It’s a mix. If you look at our public fund relationships, many of them go back four years and are mostly related to our legacy franchises in the treasure coast, and so in many cases we’re below that, but …

We’re below that because of the mix. Most of the, you know we have big operating accounts for a lot of these entities and we’re leaned more into the operating accounts and less into the - if you will investment side.

Exactly. And I would say, going forward this is not a target market for us. So, we are not out competing for those public fund relationships. So, I don't view that as sort of a competitive issue for us.

Okay, that's great. That's helpful. Okay. Super. And maybe like I guess kind of holistically around tax reform, you gave some guidance there, for what you think expenses will be in 1Q 2018, I guess as we think about one, around that expense guidance, how much remaining leverage would come from the two deals, any cost base to come out of those? And then secondarily, as you think about expenses on the longer term and investments from the tax savings that you mentioned, how much do you think can drop to the bottom line or how much of that do you think gets reinvested?

Yes, so I would talk a little bit about that. If you look at the run rate for expenses we provided for Q1, I think that’s a reasonable look kind of at a quarter-by-quarter for the full year as we move forward. We talked about last quarter or the $4.5 million in investments. We’re going to make that’s baked into that number. So, as we move forward, we will provide further guidance on investments. If we win, we do make those investments. They’ll be back half of the year weighted and we’ll provide guidance on what we think the revenue impact of that would be. So, the short answer in the short-term is, the bulk of the tax rate change will fall to the bottom line.

Okay great. Well I’ll let some other people hop on. Thanks guys.

The next question is from Michael Young with SunTrust.

Hi good morning.

Hi Michael.

Maybe as a follow-up just on the efficiency ratio guide, kind of feels like you’re going to exit the year next year with about the same levels where you are this year, can you talk about maybe the puts and takes there on what’s getting you back to kind of level year-over-year?

Yes, sure. So, if you adjust out the performance-based conversation accrual adjustment at the end of the year we exited the year in the mid 50's. So, on a sort of comparable basis, we expect to exit 2018 in the low-50s, which is in-line with our Vision 2020 objectives and keeps us on track with what we had laid out at Investor Day.

Okay, perfect. And then wanted to talk a little bit maybe Denny if you could add some color just on the hiring and the data analytics side and the Chief Information Officer, kind of what they’re going to be tasked with, if it was just further blocking and tackling on what you’ve already built?

Yes. We just continue to test and learn through all of the data analytics that we have been running and I don't know if you want to maybe tack that Jeff.

It’s really much more focused on technology. We think we’ve got a lot of unique advantage with data, and so kind of the next focus with the hiring underneath Jeff Bray is, how do we continue the drive more efficiency in the way our business operates to the better smarter use of technology. So that’s what her focus areas are going to be on, which is in my mind is really taking advantage of all the analytical ability we have to help make our company a lot more efficient than it is today.

Yes, we will be working quite a bit on a number of issues surrounding the customer experience to smooth out some of the processes that we have and we’re excited about that. I would say also that our work around cross-sell and other ways that we contact our customers and deliver take the insights that we have and deliver that information to our people who are spending more time with our customers both on the phone and face-to-face continues to drive nice revenue for us, and we’re really excited about that. And I think, as we look ahead over the next 18 months or so, important that we continue to simplify and smooth out the customer experience because we have ambitions to further scale many of the marketing activities for higher growth. So that’ s a key component. And I would just say that, the Tax Act gives us the opportunity to think about the timing of some of the investments that need to be made over the next few years, and that’s what Chuck, I think was talking about earlier as we begin to consider the possibility of pulling some of those investments forward in a way that also make certain that we balance that with current earnings.

Okay. And I think back at Investor Day you guys had laid out plans to institute a card offering, any update on whether or not that’s moving forward or when we might see some benefits in the income statement from that?

We’re still evaluating the best option on that and we’ve not come to a final decision on which route we are going, we’re going to have an offering for sure, but we’re just evaluating what’s the best option to pursue. I think we will have that probably netted out as we get into Q2.

Okay great. I will step back for now thanks.

Thanks Michael.

Our next question is from Steve Moss with B. Riley FBR.

Hi, good morning.

Hi, Steve.

Just wondering on loan growth, pipelines were down at the end of the quarter, but obviously up year-over-year, should we think about loan growth being a little bit more in the latter part of the year, outside of first quarter or pretty steady?

I think the guidance we provided is low teens for full year. We’re coming into the year with some softness coming off the hurricanes, but to give you an example, real example is our residential pipeline is up 45% from the end of the year to today. So, we seem good growth in the pipelines, and we will see if we can get - how much of that we can get close in the first quarter, but low teens is the guidance and Chuck you want to add anything to that?

Yes. This is Chuck Cross. I think to add watch of Chuck Shaffer said, you know with the additions of Palm Beach Community Bank in the fourth quarter and with NorthStar in the fourth quarter those are given as great opportunities to grow. We’ve also added, we’re on boarding some new bankers as we speak now. So, definitely if we can get through the first quarter, we think we will return to normal pipelines of production in the rest of the year.

We’ve had some great left in the Tampa market. I know we’re going to - based on our forecast we’re going to close more loans in Tampa in the first quarter than we did all of last year in 2017. So, we’ve seen some nice pick-up in some of the new markets, probably been a little slower than we would have liked in terms of the pickup, but it’s really starting to pick up now. So, we have a pretty optimistic view and are confident about the guidance we just gave.

That's helpful. And then with regard to funding loan growth and the earning asset mix, just kind of thinking about how should we think about securities, balances, and perhaps if deposit growth lags will that be funding loan growth?

Sure. We’re going to make about $100 million of investments in securities here during the first quarter and then probably from that point forward led that amortize down, and with the loan to deposit ratio it’s 83% starting the year as plenty of room to fund loan growth as we move through the year, particularly with the guidance around sort of low-teen loan growth and 6% deposit growth. You see in the fourth quarter we had fairly strong deposit growth in the quarter and feel confident going into next year, we continue to do that. That helped support the net interest margin as we sort of - the securities book sort of burns down over the year and the loan book growth and we move through the loan deposit ratio, the net interest margins will improve.

Alright, well thank you very much.

Thanks Steve.

Our next question is from David Feaster with Raymond James.

Hi good morning guys.

Hi David.

So, we talked before kind of about being able to expand the NIM, exclusive of additional rate hikes given loan yields, new loan yields that were accretive to current yields, but it sounds like that’s somewhat mitigated today, is that more a function of just rising deposit costs or has loan pricing been under pressure and just not as accretive given competition?

Yes, I would jump in there giving example, our add-on rate for new originations in the fourth quarter was up to 451 [ph], it continues to climb each quarter throughout the year. And I think NIM even on a flat rate basis will improve as the securities mix declines as a percentage of earning assets and loans growth as a percentage of earnings assets. I think the quarter was impacted by when loans got booked. As you can imagine there was significant delays on when customers could get things closed during the quarter, and so when you look at sort of a quarter-over-quarter basis that had more of an impact in then I think we expected given the hurricanes. But moving forward, I think there is support for NIM expansion, particularly if we get any increase in rates which right now we are modeling too.

Okay, that’s helpful. And with NorthStar and Palm Beach now closed, could you just talk about your appetite for M&A from here, you know the size range and region you’re looking in and how conversations are going?

Yes, we’re - it's still an issue that we’re looking at and we see opportunities out in the market. We remain focused on some of the deeper metro areas obviously, where we think there is opportunity to continue to build scale profitably and so it’s - we’re still out there and we see opportunities.

Okay. Last one from me. You talked about your lowest construction in CRE levels, which is a strategic advantage for you guys and somewhat unique for a Florida Bank, given the nature of economy here, could you just talk about your appetite for new CRE credits and your willingness to drive this up somewhat or do risk adjusted returns not meet your thresholds or are you just simply managing concentrations?

I’ll just poke in here and say that we have established very important guardrails around where we get our growth, and again I keep taking it back to balance. We’ll continue to grow the CRE book a little bit. As the entire portfolio grows we’re not anticipating any effort to push up that ratio particularly in the near-term. I think where you’ve seen it grow recently it’s been through the acquisition work we’ve done with higher CRE concentrations, but still super low compared to just about anybody else that you find. I think it does provide us though to your point with a very strategic and important advantage. Particularly it plays well, I think when we look at acquisitions. I think it also - where we have the right opportunities to grow that a little bit. We certainly would look at that as we go through time, but it’s not a key focus for us. We remain focused on building the granularity. We had some tremendous improvement in 2017 with our community banking group that grew our C&I Book and small business loans very, very nicely throughout the markets, particularly focused on some of the deeper metro markets that we’ve found ourselves in over the last few years. We’ll continue to invest in our community bank and grow the small business loans. This past year, we’ve also began the growth, increase our momentum in SBA lending, as well as we have garnered greater relationships in those metro areas. So, really important to have the balance and to make the investments needed to grow the granularity in the loan book. We can always adjust the CRE side of things as we go through time, but the key point here is keep that granularity where it is and have a balanced approach to growth.

Okay. That’s great color. Thank you.

Thank you, David.

The next question is from Jeff Cantwell with Guggenheim Securities.

Hi, good morning.

Hi, Jeff.

Hi, thanks for taking my question. I really appreciate all the color you’ve already given on the quarter and the outlook, so I’ll just ask one. What are the things you discussed in your prepared remarks and also in the Q&A, it sounds like a nice windfall from tax reform for you guys, obviously something others have been talking about across the space as either increasing investment to ensure buybacks et cetera. So, one of the things I will ask you in a different way, which is what would - would you be able to expand a little bit for us on the priority list? In other words, I’m asking, kind of are you planning on being opportunistic with your share buyback, may be here for example? I understand it’s quite early days, but would appreciate any color you can give us on your thinking and how you see the tax savings being utilized?

Thanks Jeff. Thanks for the question. I think from an operating expense perspective and we will talk more about this as we move forward, but it will be primarily focused on things that are going to support growth and that’s where the investments will head towards again later part of this year. On the call capital side, I think there’s still as Denny mentioned, opportunities in the M&A environment and so keeping our capital fresh is probably the appropriate approach, but as we move forward kind of the Tax Act does bring forward a discussion around capital strategy and we will begin to have that with our board in the coming quarters as we move through the year.

We think it’s important to stay focused on growth, but profitable growth, and so we’re looking at the return characteristics and paybacks and so forth on a variety of things that we see happening over the next few years, particularly items that are supporting our go forward plan to achieve our goals in 2020. And so, we will continue to look at those and make investments where you think it’s the right. I think Chuck is absolutely right, a huge opportunity I think still out there is M&A and having the capital flexibility, I think that is afforded with the tax asset that really can be helpful in that arena as well. Hope that helps.

Great. Yes, thanks. Appreciate all the color.

Thanks Jeff.

The next question is from Nancy Bush with NAB Research.

Good morning. Could you tell me what - if you could just give us a little color on sort of the tail that comes with the Hurricane and how long do the effects go on? What has been your historical experience and sort of when you get this all behind you?

This Hurricane didn’t have much of a direct negative impact to customers in the market, although we had a little bit of that as you saw. This one, I think the difference here is it was so widespread, it affected just about every market in the State of Florida, and so the effects were frankly even though it wasn’t a deadly, if you will, particularly deadly storm, the effects where more widespread than anything we’ve frankly experienced. And so, I think the tail has gone not to be direct. I think we’re back in business now, but it lingered I would say couple or two or three months longer than we would have expected. Just to give you an - for instance our entire residential pipeline for example had to be re-examined, and we had to do re-inspections of every single property that was in an affected area, and the entire State just about was in an affected area. So that alone slowed up closings in a significant way. Our customers were distracted for a good 60 days, I would say and perhaps took them another 30 days to take a break and then we kind of hit the holidays. So, it was kind of an unusual confluence of events weather events combined with holidays that impacted us. The tail’s gone, key point, tail’s gone and the lingering effects were bigger than we expected when we last talked.

So, the biggest lingering impact though is in sort of the keys that area is still and you’re not there. So…

Yes. And there they had very negative impacts. I mean it was very destructive, particularly in the middle keys. We have almost no exposure down there, at all, and for us it wasn't like this big negative destructive impact, it was more a distractive impact.

That’s a good description, thank you. Secondly, deposit competition retail deposit competition in your markets, if you could just speak to that and what your beta expectations are right now and whether those have been evolving over the last few months?

Yes, I would say in the retail markets they are still almost zero deposit pressure. I mean that’s where we are focused in retail and small business. We don't see a lot of deposit pricing pressure there. As I mentioned earlier, kind of in the wholesale or public fund market there’s certainly deposit pressure, but on the retail side, which we primarily on the retail and small business side compete against the national banks and there’s really no pressure from rate from those organizations.

So, no change in beta?

No.

Okay.

We’ve been for years, you know steadfastly focused on driving core growth, core relationships through operating relationships and that’s where we stay focused. It puts us in good start in a period like this where you begin to see potentially some rate moment over the next year we think we’re in great shape.

Alright. Thank you.

Thanks Nancy.

We have no further questions at this time. I’d like to turn the call back to Mr. Dennis Hudson for closing remarks.

Right. Like to thank everybody for attending today. We look forward to talking with you again following first quarter.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.