Randy Sims
Analyst · Raymond James. Please go ahead
Thank you very much, Johnny. Yes, another great, great quarter. As Johnny said, it was the most profitable quarter in the history of our company. How many times have we said that in a row? And I love saying it; it's my favorite thing to say, well, that is now 17 consecutive quarters of record income for Home BancShares. Every time we have a great quarter and especially one like this one, I wonder can we do it again. But we've been doing it for over four years and that is just a great, great path record earnings. A $2.8 million or 9% increase over our previously reported record profit last quarter. And we finally hit $0.50 diluted earnings per share for the quarter, another milestone in our history. Diluted earnings per share excluding intangible amortization for the second quarter was $0.51 per share. And on top of the record income, it was a very active quarter for us. So I will mention just a few things that went on. First of all, in June, we announced the signing of the definitive agreement to plan a merger for Homes to acquire Florida Business BancGroup, parent company of Bay Cities Bank, headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Under the terms of this agreement, FBBI will merge into Home, and Bay Cities will merge into Centennial. Florida Business BancGroup currently operates six branch locations and a loan production office in the Tampa Bay area and in Sarasota, Florida. As of March 31, FBBI had approximately $540 million in total assets, $392 million in loans, and $461 million in deposits. We are really looking forward to closing this transaction as soon as regulatory approvals are completed, and we look to welcome them to the Centennial Bank and Home BancShares family. It is going to really help our footprint in the Tampa Bay area. Also as you are aware, we acquired the Doral Florida Panhandle operations in a FDIC failed bank transaction that added to our already strong presence in Panama City, as well as giving us a good increase in market share in Pensacola. I am pleased to announce on July 15, just few days ago, we completed the systems conversion. All five of the branches will soon be consolidated into existing Centennial branches and close as regulatory approvals are obtained. Our organic loan growth in the second quarter was approximately $279.9 million, now in my book that's $280 million. Of that amount $56.2 million was associated with our Centennial Commercial Finance Group in New York City, and we continue to entertain strategic opportunities with potential acquisitions, organic growth opportunities, and working to improve our own existing markets. So I would like to turn it over to Centennial's CEO, Tracy French, to give us an update on these items and to give us just a little additional color on our performance this quarter.