Earnings Labs

National Bank Holdings Corporation (NBHC)

Q3 2012 Earnings Call· Fri, Nov 2, 2012

$43.28

+0.13%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the National Bank Holdings Corporation 2012 third quarter earnings call. My name is Brent, and I will be your operator for today. At this time, all participant lines are in a listen-only mode. We will conduct a question-and-answer session following the presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes. I would like to remind you that this conference call will contain forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the company’s loans and loan growth, deposits, strategic capital, potential income streams, gross margin, taxes, and non-interest expense. Our total results could differ materially from those discussed today. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and they are disclosed in more detail in the company’s most recent filings with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission. These statements speak only as of the date of this call and National Bank Holdings Corporation undertakes no obligation to update or revise the statements. It’s now my pleasure to turn the call over and introduce National Bank Holdings Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer Mr. Tim Laney. G. Timothy Laney – President, CEO: Thank you, Brent. Good morning, and welcome to National Bank Holdings first public earnings call. This morning I am joined by our Chief Financial Officer, Brian Lilly, and our Chief Risk Officer, Rick Newfield. Brian is going to be covering our operating results for the third quarter in detail, so I’ll quickly cover some highlights. During the third quarter, we were pleased to achieve a key corporate milestone with the completion of our IPO and listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Adjusting earnings for one-time expenses related to the IPO, we produced net-income in the third quarter of $0.06 per share versus $0.05 per share in the second quarter. During the third…

Operator

Operator

(Operator instructions). Your first question comes from the line of Brian Zabora, you line is now open. Brian Zabora – Stifel Nicolaus: Good morning. G. Timothy Laney – President, CEO: Good morning, Brian. Brian Zabora – Stifel Nicolaus: A question on your loan production – give us a sense of where the split was between your Colorado and Kansas City footprints? G. Timothy Laney – President, CEO: The – it certainly is dominated by the Kansas City – we call it about 2/3, 1/3, but the good news from that is as we shared for the first six months, Colorado is just going through the integrations, and wasn’t producing, really, covering it’s [inaudible] in production. For the quarter, it was able to cover the run off with reproduction, and it’s good to see the baring of the proof of the investments that we made in that portfolio, and certainly there is more to come. On a month-to-month basis, Brian, if you compare first year performance of our Colorado relations to first year operations in Kansas City, Colorado is actually ramping up faster than what we saw in the first year of Bank Midwest, or [inaudible], our Missouri operations – so, we’re encouraged there. Brian Zabora – Stifel Nicolaus: Great, and then this question on expenses – so, occupancy was up a bit in the quarter, is that a good run rate, or was – is there anything involved in the transition as far as, you know, putting everything onto one platform as far as any cost in that line? G. Timothy Laney – President, CEO: The third quarter is beginning to be a better run rate as with what you saw with the first six months and nine months with some settling with some settling with the FDIC to get those all assets and all of those pieces in place. So, you will see the third quarter more of a run rate. Brian Zabora – Stifel Nicolaus: Great, thanks for taking my questions. G. Timothy Laney – President, CEO: Thank you, Brian.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Matt Olney from Stephens, your line is now open. Matt Olney – Stephens: Hey, good morning guys. G. Timothy Laney – President, CEO: : Hey, Matt.

Brian Lilly - CFO

Analyst

Hi, Matt. Matt Olney – Stephens: Hey, on the organic loan growth, it looks like you guys made some good progress on the originations, can you provide some commentary as to [inaudible] initiative, and eventually, where you want to be? And second part of the question is the run off of non-core loans [inaudible] the addition of core loans – how close are we to an inflection point to seeing that offset each other?

G. Timothy Laney - CEO

Analyst

You want to begin, Brian, and then I’ll pick up and talk about how we see this unfolding?

Brian F. Lilly - CFO

Analyst

Well, maybe I’ll start with your second question, Matt. As we’ve talked about that, that’s a 2013 crossover as we see it, we’re aggressively moving the non-strategic loans – you know, know that there’s some time frames with the FDIC that we want to meet, and certainly there is opportunities realize that economic value. We’ve got a great team on the ground here working through those, and so, we are not managing that pace to slow down at all – when you can get rid of a problem loan, do it. The focus is certainly on the new loan production – the first part of your question, and as we’ve shared the pre-cap – the capacity that we have in the company is an excess of $1 billion, and if you just straight line that, it’s over 250 million a quarter. That’s why my comment – you know, we’re really pleased with the 128, and even Tim’s comment, but we have a capacity to get the bigger – that’s really our focus, to get it to that level. You know, and Matt, I would simply add that we break this down into what you might think of micro-segments, or micro-plans, and when all is said and done, what we plan, and what we are going for, and ramping up to is a very reasonable target of $4 million a year in the annual average production per banking center, and average annual loan production of approximately $50 million per commercial banker. As you know, we have roughly 100 banking centers, we have roughly 50 relationship managers, and what we are monitoring is the progress towards those average targets, and if you do very simple math, that will show you that we’ll position to actually – eventually move even beyond the $1 million of production. When you think about our strategic loan portfolio, which we intend to grow with client relationships, and really the acquired troubled portfolio – troubled loan portfolio – we very much think of as an investment portfolio, a deeply discounted portfolio that we’ve manage for yield and return, and really what we’ve modeled and looked at is a three year period where we have the benefit of the credible yield almost as Air [inaudible] provided revenue and income while we ramp up this organic loan production over this next one to three years, and again, that’s why we’re so intensely focused on that quarter-to-quarter ramp up in production, because long story short, moving to approximately $1 billion in annual production is really the magic number. Of course that requires us to continue to be very focused on bringing down our cost of deposits, which we’re doing, managing our expenses, which we are very focused on, and then that’s where you start to put this company into a position to provide very attractive returns for shareholders.

Matt Olney - Stephens

Analyst

Okay, that’s very helpful, and then secondly, can you just remind us where you are in the hiring process of commercial lenders today versus where you ultimately will be?

Brian F. Lilly - CFO

Analyst

Yes, you know, the good news is we’ve got the 50 bankers in our run rate today. I will tell you that, you know, we continue to work with those bankers to insure that we’ve got the best possible bankers on the ground. We have been building out some specialties that take advantage of opportunities in the markets where we do business – two good examples would be agriculture and energy. And while we have caps on how much exposure – loan exposure, we will permit for any sector when we begin to look at a specialized energy like energy or agriculture, we understand that if we’re going to be successful in those industries, we have to have specialized bankers that understand that space, and so that has – the implication has been that we have replaced a number of our general bankers with specialty bankers, and you could expect some of that to continue, but the good news is that we’ve got the number of bankers we need to hit these production levels in our existing run rates.

Matt Olney - Stephens

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Again, (Operator instruction), your next question comes from the line of Christopher McGratty from KBW. G. Timothy Laney – President, CEO: Good morning.

Operator

Operator

Your line is open. Christopher McGratty – KBW:

Brian F. Lilly - CFO

Analyst

We – the 62% is primarily going back into CDs, although some of that is making its way into money market accounts, and our incremental rate though of bringing CDs on is currently about 50 BIPs, actually just a hair below that on a monthly basis when you weigh out the maturity [inaudible] we have out there. Christopher McGratty – KBW: Okay, thanks, and now that the IPO process is behind you, have you noticed any changes in your conversations with potential [inaudible] targets? G. Timothy Laney – President, CEO: Look, I can tell you within a week of having closed up the IPO process, we have reengaged in conversations and diligence with a number of potential [inaudible] partners, and I can tell you that, quite frankly, that I am where our stock process trading. It doesn’t represent the kind of currency that we’re excited about using in a transaction, so the conversations are very much focused on the idea of a partnership, the idea of doing something together with a resulting company creating values that would create the low one win for both the buyer and the seller. Christopher McGratty – KBW: Thanks, Tim, and then just last one that I had, can you guys remind us of your financial targets for MNA transactions – just, you know, how you are thinking about EPS secretion versus IRs, versus tangible failure earn backs? G. Timothy Laney – President, CEO: You know, every situation is unique. I think it’s important to begin with the point that we are intentionally focused on transactions that would be strategic in nature, complimentary to our existing markets, it would help us continue to build franchise value in the two areas where we do business, and we tend to look at that three to four payback range as a reasonable range in this market for making the light transaction happen, and again, I think all that you have to do is look at our history and discipline around structuring deals that create attractive returns. We still think the market offers up those kind of opportunities, and you know, just as a reference point, as we speak today, in our two markets, we have a combined 36 institutions with Texas ratios greater than 100% that represent total assets of just under $20 billion, and we believe those represent very interesting opportunities, and again, we believe there are also a number of unique open bank transactions that would be extraordinarily complementary if we could structure an arrangement that truly represented a partnership in the way we think about creating long term value. Christopher McGratty – KBW: Great, thanks for taking my questions. G. Timothy Laney – President, CEO: You bet.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Peyton Green from Sterne Agee, you line is now open. Peyton Green – Sterne Agee: Yes, good morning. G. Timothy Laney – President, CEO: Hey, how you doing, Peyton? Peyton Green – Sterne Agee: I was just wondering if you could comment a little bit, I know on the strategic loan growth at the agricultural and residential were particularly strong again, but the CNI and CRE were still negative. Can you talk maybe a little bit about the production of those two segments relative to the agricultural and the residential, and when you would expect them to get a little bit more momentum?

Brian F. Lilly

Analyst

Well, that clearly is the focus, Peyton, we’ve had great traction out of the residential real estate, you’ve heard our – as we’ve talked about 15 is the new 30, and the ability for our banking centers to attract customers and bring re-fillers in on the refinancing, which continues to have little [inaudible], but as you see the commercial and the related is where our opportunity is, and the Kansas City market is picking up and we see tremendous opportunity to the Colorado markets, and that’s really the commercial bankers getting the products that – getting the activity that we want. We have nice pipeline that are building that are getting us to our levels, and it was good to see that we have doubled really the production in the last [inaudible], but not nearly where we need to be, and that’s what is going to get us to that 250 by quarter that Tim was talking about. G. Timothy Laney – President, CEO: Peyton, you know, I – and I think you can, or Brian can speak to it if you can’t see it, but we’ve continued to be very disciplined in our course CNI business around protecting the balance sheet. We refuse to fall trap to pursuing business on loose terms of pricing that we don’t think would represent attractive terms for the company. And we – you know, we will pace ourselves accordingly. We’re simply not going to fall into the game of chasing volume for the sake of chasing volume. I will tell you we track over the course of each year our production by segment, and what I can tell you that excites me, is that our three highest segments of loan production in the CNI space are in this order – number one, frankly, the 250,000 – and these are small businesses, obviously – loans of 250,000 or less. Then, 250 to $1 million total exposure, and then our real sweet spot is that $1 to $5 million loan relationship, and our total exposure relationship – and quite frankly, we feel good about that, and what I keep coming back to is the markets where we do business. I don’t think anyone expects us to be superstars, but what we believe is that we can capture our fair share of these markets, and these markets offer up more than enough opportunity to reach that $1 billion production level, but do it in a way that is safe, sound, and generates reasonable returns for our investors. Peyton Green – Sterne Agee: Okay, and then just one follow up – on the agricultural related, is that all land based, or does that include some food service related? G. Timothy Laney – President, CEO: That’s a great question, Rick, do you want to - our Chief Risk Officer, Rick Newfield.

Rick U. Newfield - CFO

Analyst

Good morning, Peyton, that’s really a combination of crop livestock, and underlying agricultural land, and actually probably and equipment, and probably more balanced outside of land at this point. Peyton Green – Sterne Agee: Okay, great, thank you very much for taking my questions. G. Timothy Laney – President, CEO: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the Line of Matt Olney from Stephens, you line is now open. Matt Olney – Stephens: Hey, just a quick housekeeping question for Brian. That $1.7 million impact on the non-IPO related stock compensation, can you remind us what that is, and will that continue to impact poor results in the future?

Brian F. Lilly - CFO

Analyst

I’m sorry, I missed the first part – you said, 1.7… Peyton Green – Sterne Agee:

Brian F. Lilly - CFO

Analyst

Oh, you’re talking about the difference between the 4.9 and the 6.6 for the quarter in our stock compensation expense. Yes, that would be our normal amortization on a monthly basis, and we typically run about $700,000 to a little bit less than that on a monthly basis for the amortization of the stock comp expense, and that would be our normal reoccurring level. Matt Olney – Stephens: Okay, great, thanks Brian.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, and I am showing that there are no further questions at this time. I will turn the call back to Mr. Tim Laney for his closing remarks.

G. Timothy Laney

Analyst

Thanks, Brett. Well, again, hey, thank you for joining us for our inaugural public company earnings call, we appreciate your questions, your time, and have a good day.