Melanie J. Dressel
Analyst · Joe Morford
Thanks, Andy. We're continuing to see improvement in the Pacific Northwest economy, particularly in our major metropolitan areas, which are recovering significantly faster than Washington and Oregon as a whole. According to Kiplinger, the recovery in housing is firmly underway, particularly in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue; and Portland, Vancouver markets, our 2 largest metropolitan areas. Both markets are expected to perform well due to a very low inventory of unsold homes, driving up prices and encouraging new construction, contributing to increased income, spending and employment. We're also seeing a welcome surge in the start-up businesses in these markets. While the Port of Seattle continued to experience sluggish container volumes, Tacoma and Portland volumes were up for the first quarter. Portland increased about 12% from a year ago, while Tacoma's volume was up 37% year-to-date through March. Much of these increases were due to demand for agricultural and wood products, industrial machinery, furniture, auto parts and electronics. Expectations are for additional growth during the rest of the year. The Pacific Northwest has done well in population growth for metropolitan areas, which is particularly interesting since low density and affordable housing have pushed most of the population growth in the past decade or so to the Southeast and Texas. The Portland-Vancouver area ranked 18th in the country with population growth of 18.3% over the period of 2000 to 2012. The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area ranked 21st, with 16.4% growth during the same time period. While the unemployment rate continues to improve, some of the declining rate is due to shrinking labor force, as people stop looking for work or retire. However, the overall economic trend is for an increase in the number of jobs and a falling jobless rate despite a dip at Boeing. The unemployment rate in Washington dropped to 7.3% in March, the lowest rate since December of 2008 well over 4 years ago and almost 3 percentage points below its highest point at 10.2%. That unemployment rate for the Seattle MSA fell to 5.5% in March, considerably lower than the rest of the state. In fact, the area is among the nation's top 10 markets for job growth. Washington state has recovered over 70% of the jobs lost during the recession. Exports grew a remarkable 45% from 2007 to 2012. The state has the greatest concentration of technology jobs in the U.S. In fact, over 11% of jobs in Washington and are tied to the tech economy more than doubled the national average. The Boeing Company, our region's largest private employer, announced some relatively modest layoffs of assembly line workers due to efficiency gains, as well as engineering employees as its latest jet program shift from development to production. While Boeing continues to ramp up production on their major programs, some programs such as the 787-10 or the 777X are not yet at the point in their development to maintain the current levels of employment. The company predicts the commercial market for aircraft will grow at an annual rate of 4% over the next 2 decades. And we're all happy that the FAA has approved modifications to the 787 battery system, so the planes should be back in the air very soon. As I've mentioned before, the military is a very important economic driver in Western Washington, employing more than 91,000 people in the region. The military provides more than $3.1 billion annually in total payroll. Local sales associated with military employment are estimated at nearly $24 billion. The region's active duty military employment is nearly double the national average. Of course, we're very carefully watching the federal budget implications related to the potential downsizing of the military. The University of Oregon's recent economic indicators report states the pattern of recent improvement in the states, particularly the rebound in housing, suggest the economy will improve further as 2013 progresses. With financing costs low and corporate profits high, a great deal of spending and investment is likely to be unleashed, as soon as the near-term uncertainty is removed. While still high, above the national rate of 7.6%, Oregon's unemployment rate hit its lowest point in 4 years in March, dropping to 8.2%, down from recession high as near 12%. The professional and business services industry hit record numbers in March, with almost 200,000 jobs, higher than it was in April of 2008 before the recession hit the state. The hospitality and food industry also hit a record high last month with over 152,000 jobs. The industry peaked 5 years ago. Construction, manufacturing and leisure also did well, exceeding expectations. The manufacturing and services area in Oregon contributed positively to job growth. The economic impact of manufacturing in Oregon outweighs any other state. Nearly 20% of Oregon's gross state product comes from manufacturing, making the state the second in the nation in the economic influence in manufacturing activities. 2 sectors, in particular, wood products and electronics, make notably larger impacts in the state compared to the rest of the nation. Wood products still account for nearly 6% of all manufacturing jobs in the country despite its many years of decline. The state's high-tech electronics sector is anchored by Intel, Lattice Semiconductor and TriQuint. Despite at still high levels of unemployment, Oregon showed the best growth in state gross domestic product in our region, increasing 14% from 2007 to 2012. Of course, there are always challenges. However, we have a very attractive place to live and operate a business in 1 of the fastest-growing parts of the country. Our workforce is well-educated. We have a long list of world-class companies. We are a center for high-tech activities, software development and Internet commerce, medical research, telecommunications and aircraft design and production. We believe that Pacific Northwest region will continue to help reform the nation as a whole. As you know, our merger with West Coast Bancorp was completed on April 1. Our strategic plan to integrate Columbia and West Coast has been well underway since last October. With cross-functional teams from both banks playing essential roles, we anticipate a very smooth transition. Since 2010, we have successfully integrated 5 FDIC-assisted transactions in addition to 6 more traditional bank acquisitions over almost 20-year history. Additionally, we will continue to keep our bankers externally focused with the intent to continue to drive loan growth, expand non-interest income and to develop strong relationships with the customers and prospects, in both our new and legacy markets. Equally as important is our ongoing focus on improving the efficiency of our company without sacrificing our level of customer service. As you know, our industry faces ever-increasing expenses due to new regulations and compliance requirement. We expect there are broader base over which to spread infrastructure investments will be very helpful in controlling expenses. To summarize, we're just excited about the opportunities in the months to come, as we continue to build the premier Pacific Northwest community bank. In a separate press release yesterday, we announced a cash dividend of $0.10 per common share and per common share equivalent for holders of preferred stocks. The dividend will be paid on May 22, 2013 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on May 8. This gets an increase of 25% from the $0.08 regular cash dividend we paid for the same period a year ago, and it represent a dividend yield of 1.91%. With that, this concludes our prepared comments this afternoon. And as a reminder, Clint Stein, our CFO; Andy McDonald, our Chief Credit Officer; and Mark Nelson, our Chief Operating Officer, are with me to answer your questions. And now, Michelle, will you open the call for questions, please?