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S&T Bancorp, Inc. (STBA)

Q2 2012 Earnings Call· Tue, Jul 24, 2012

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the S&T Bancorp Incorporated Second Quarter 2012 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mark Kochvar, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for S&T Bancorp. Thank you. Mr. Kochvar, you may begin.

Mark Kochvar

Analyst

Good afternoon and thank you for participating in today’s conference call. Before beginning the presentation, I want to take time to refer you to our statement about forward-looking statements and risk factors, which is on the screen in front of you. This statement provides the cautionary language required by the Securities and Exchange Commission for forward-looking statements that may be included in this presentation. A copy of the second quarter earnings release can be obtained by visiting our Investor Relations website at www.stbankcorp.com. I would to now introduce Todd Brice, S&T’s President and CEO, who will provide an overview of S&T’s results.

Todd Brice

Analyst

Well, thank you, Mark and good afternoon, everyone. As we announced in yesterday’s press release, we reported net income of $8.6 million or $0.30 per share for the second quarter versus $3.4 million or $0.12 per share in the first quarter of 2012 and also versus $13.4 million or $0.48 per share in the second quarter of 2011. Obviously, our provision expense of $7 million and charge-off of $8.2 million are higher than we would like and negatively impacted our results this quarter. We do continue to work diligently to identify issues early with conservative valuations on nonperforming loans. In addition, we experienced a deterioration in our net interest margin this quarter as it continues to be impacted by the low interest rate environment. On a positive note, this was the first full quarter in which we benefited from the mainline integration. As a result, net interest income increased by $500,000 on a linked quarter basis. Overall, we have been pleased with the integration of mainline from both the retention, as well as, the business development standpoint. We are seeing nice increases in the residential mortgage activities and also the wealth management lines of business in the mainline markets and I think what’s nice a lot of the of the activities is with new customers and we are seeing cross-selling opportunities for core DDA and other retail product. In addition, we’re going to continue to actively mine the mainline customer base to increase penetration and services per household and expect to continue to see positive results. I think another bright spot this quarter is the wealth management business, which was up about $200,000 on a linked quarter basis and about $800,000 year-to-date versus 2011. This is an area where we did focus a lot of attention on in 2011 and…

Patrick Haberfield

Analyst

Hi, thanks, Todd, and good afternoon. Provision expense for the second quarter 2012 was $7 million resulted in an ending balance in the loan loss reserve of $46.7 million or 1.46% of total loans. This compares to a provision expense of $9.3 million with a loan loss reserve balance of $47.8 million or 1.49% at March 31, 2012. Included in the June 2012 allowance is $2 million of specific reserves which compares to $6 million in specific reserves at March 31, 2012. Nonperforming assets ended the quarter $72 million or 2.25% of total loans plus OREO as compared to $67.9 million or 2.12% total loans plus OREO at March 31 and $82 million or 2.18% at June 30 of 2011. Our nonperforming assets increased for the second quarter due in part to receiving several appraisals exhibiting stress valuations causing a reaction to take impairment charges against the collateral value to loan balance and thus moving these credits into a nonaccrual status. In addition, we self identified several credits which recently exhibited some additional stress on their projects which caused for strict actions to identify these credit as impaired and conduct an analysis on the valuation of these assets, which results in a write-down to the newly established value. We aggressively identified these shortfalls asset-by-asset and take the appropriate charges. Each of the credits reviewed at workout plans, and it is believed that the resolution of these credits will occur over time, thus maximizing our established values of these assets. Many of these credits are deemed to be collateral dependent whereby we continue to go through additional exercise of reevaluating assets and reacting to the market values and conditions that now exist. During the second quarter of 2012, the Bank experienced net charge-offs of $8.2 million, which compared to $10.3 million…

Mark Kochvar

Analyst

Thanks, Pat. As Todd mentioned, our performance in the second quarter included a full quarter with our recent acquisition of Mainline Bank. This resulted in higher net interest income and favorable expense comparison to the prior quarter again due to the $3.9 million of onetime charges taken in that first quarter. Despite improved net interest income the margin rate decreased by 12 basis points compared to the first quarter, 9 basis point of this decline is due to the increase in interest bearing deposits at banks, primarily excess cash at the Fed. Loan balances were essentially flat for the quarter and we’ll need to turn this around in order to see better margin rates. New loan volume is up over $100 million year-to-date compared to the same period in 2011. But loan payouts remain elevated and were slightly higher than the new volume that’s here today. The average rate on new loan volume is under pressure from the very low rate environment and competition to add earning assets. On the liability side, we have some benefit from higher rate CD maturities at the end this quarter, which will continue into July and August. We also lowered some core rates very late in the second quarter, and look for other opportunities to reduce deposit costs later this year. Non-interest income showed some improvement over last quarter primarily in wealth management, mortgage banking and swap fees. Expense comparisons between the second and the first quarter are difficult due to the onetime merger expenses in the first quarter. Outside of this, there were 2 main items that increased expenses: the impairment of low income housing project for about $280,000 and an increase in the reserve for unfunded commitment of $650,000. Our expense run rate is up to about $1 million -- is up about $1 million per quarter with mainline and stands at approximately $20 million per quarter. This will increase again when we add Gateway, which we anticipate closing in the third quarter. Gateway will also come with about $1.2 million of merger-related expenses in the third quarter. The systems conversion is scheduled of the first quarter of 2013. Our tax rate is somewhat lower due to consistent permit items and increase in low income housing tax credits on a lower pre-tax income. We now expect the tax rate for the full year to be in the high teens. Thank you very much. At this time I’d like to turn it over to operator to provide instructions for asking questions.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Gentlemen, it appears there are no questions at this time.

Todd Brice

Analyst

Okay. Well if anybody does have any follow-up questions, please feel free to reach out Mark or myself. We did have one call or question that came in on the -- via email, so I’ll let Mark address that.

Mark Kochvar

Analyst

Thanks, Todd. The question was with the merger of Mainline Bank, will there be any salary savings because of the consolidation and if not, why not? Just to review overall expenses at Mainline Bank prior to their conversion with just under $7.5 million. Our savings -- expected savings is about $2.8 million, so that leaves about a $4.5 million of run rate. So, we do expect just under $3 million of a saving going forward. Of that savings of about $2.8 million about $1.7 million of that is salary and benefits related and we are seeing that debt benefit almost right away here in the second quarter. Okay, thanks, operator.

Todd Brice

Analyst

So, just want to thank everybody for participating in today’s call. Mark and Pat and I appreciate the opportunity to discuss this quarter results and look forward to hearing from you at our next quarterly meeting. So, thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.