Central Pacific Financial Corp (CPF) 2015 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Central Pacific Financial Corp fourth-quarter 2015 conference call.

(Operator Instructions)

This call is being recorded, and will be available for replay shortly after its completion on the Company's website, at www.centralpacificbank.com. I would like to turn the call over to Mr. David Morimoto, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you Allison, and thank you all for joining us as we review our financial results for the fourth quarter of 2015. With me this morning are Catherine Ngo, President and Chief Executive Officer; Lance Mizumoto, President and Chief Banking Officer; and Anna Hu, Senior Vice President and Interim Chief Credit Officer.

During the course of today's call, management may make forward-looking statements. While we believe these statements are based on reasonable assumptions, they involve risks that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. For a complete discussion of the risk related to forward-looking statements, please refer to our recent filings with the SEC.

Now I'll turn the call over to Catherine.

Thank you David, and good morning everyone. We are pleased to report that net income in fourth quarter of 2015 was $10.9 million and net income for the year 2015 was $45.9 million, or an increase of 13.4% over 2014. Loan and deposit growth continued to be strong in the quarter, as well as on a year-over-year basis. Our asset quality at year end improved significantly over the same period last year. David Morimoto will provide the financial details later on the call. Overall, we ended the year in a solid position financially and are confident in meeting the challenges going forward.

The Company's share repurchase programs returned excess capital to our shareholders, was successfully executed throughout the year, fueled by consistent profitability. Approximately 4.1 million shares of CPS stock was repurchased throughout 2015, representing a buyback of 11.7%, of the total outstanding and issued shares of common stock as of December 31, 2014. Since we started our share repurchase program in the fourth quarter of 2014 we have repurchased approximately 11.2 million shares, or 26.5% of our outstanding common shares as of December 31, 2013.

Our capital ratios continue to remain in excess of the regulatory well-capitalized minimal levels designated under Basel III. Our Board of Directors yesterday approved a 2016 share repurchase program for up to $30 million going forward.

Our strategic focus for 2016 continues to revolve around relationship banking and our customers' experience. The key initiatives in our 2016 business plan are designed to support this strategy, in addition to strengthening our information management capability and streamlining operational efficiency. Our entire CPB team is committed and dedicated to achieving the critical milestones necessary to continue moving our Company forward.

We are encouraged by continued positive improvements in the economic and business conditions in Hawaii. Having a stable economic tailwind will allow us to better execute on our business plan initiatives.

Growth and the visitor industry has been surprisingly strong during the past year. As of November 2015, year-to-date visitor arrivals were up by 4.2% over the same period in the previous year. And visitor expenditures were up 2.2% to $13.6 million.

The construction cycle is currently in full swing, and the total value of building permits year to date as of November 2015 was up by 24.2% over the same period of the previous year, primarily driven by residential construction projects. Labor conditions continued to improve throughout 2015. The unemployment rate in Hawaii dropped to its lowest level since January 2008 at 3.2% in December compared to the national unemployment rate of 5%.

Job growth and real (technical difficulties) income also continue to expand by 1.5% and 4% respectively year over year as of November 2015. Other key projections for 2015 over the previous year include increases in real GDP by 3.4% and the inflation rate by 0.6%.

At this time, I would like to ask David Morimoto, our Chief Financial Officer, to review the highlights of our fourth quarter and 2015 financial performance. David?

Thank you Catherine, and good morning everyone. Net income for the fourth quarter of 2015 was $10.9 million, or $0.34 per diluted share, compared to net income of $12.2 million, or $0.38 per diluted share reported last quarter. While net income and EPS decline sequential quarter, the quality of earnings improved in the fourth quarter as the credit provision declined. Our return on average assets in the fourth quarter was 87 basis points and return on average equity was 8.68%.

Full-year 2015 net income was $45.9 million, or $1.40 per share compared to $40.5 million, or $1.07 per share. Year-to-date return on assets was 92 basis points. And return on equity was 8.91%.

Net interest income increased by $0.4 million, or 11,6% sequential quarter, as average loan balances increased by roughly $70 million. Net interest margin was relatively stable at 3.3% in the fourth quarter, and has now been in the 3.3% range for the past two years. The recent 25 basis point tightening by the Federal Reserve is not expected to have a material impact on our net interest income or net interest margin, as it impacted a similar amount of assets and liabilities.

During the fourth quarter we recorded a credit to the provision for loan and lease losses of $2 million compared to a credit of $3.6 million recorded in the prior quarter. Net charge-offs in the fourth quarter total $1.4 million compared to net recoveries of $3.4 million in the third quarter. Our allowance for loan and lease losses at year end was $63.3 million, or 1.97% of outstanding loans and leases.

Other operating income was $9.8 million in the fourth quarter and was relatively unchanged. Other operating expense increased by $0.4 million, or 1.2% sequential quarter. The efficiency ratio was relatively unchanged at 67.8% versus 67.6% in the prior quarter. Our year-to-date efficiency ratio was 69.6%, down from 70.9% in 2014.

In the fourth quarter our effective tax rate of 37.2% was slightly inflated by some tax true-up adjustments. We expect our normalized effective tax rate to approximate 35% to 36% going forward. Catherine mentioned that the Board yesterday authorized a new $30 million share repurchase program. So unlike the fourth quarter and 2015, we do expect to return to open market share repurchases beginning this quarter.

That completes the financial summary. And now I'll turn the call over to Lance.

Thank you David, and good morning everyone. Overall we realized solid growth in our loan and deposit portfolios from the previous quarter, as well as on a year-over-year basis. Our focus on strengthening client relationships and on market segmentation has been supported by the continued positive economic and market conditions in Hawaii.

As of December 31, 2015 total loans increased by $110.1 million, or by 3.5% from the end of the previous quarter, and by $279.3 million, or by 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. The sequential quarter growth in loan balances was distributed across all loan types, including increases of 12.6% in construction loans, 3.7% in residential mortgages, 3.2% in commercial mortgages, and 2.9% in both commercial and consumer loans. On a year-over-year basis the 9.5% total loan growth comprised of increases in commercial loans of 12.4%, residential mortgages of 12%, consumer loans of 11.6%, and commercial mortgages of 8.2%. Construction loans declined by 25.9% due to the loan pay-downs in selective new business bookings.

Total deposits as of December 31, 2015 realized significant growth from the previous quarter, increasing by $202.9 million, or by 4.8%. This growth included an increase in core deposits by $180.8 million, or by 5.3%. On a year-over-year basis, both total deposits and core deposits increased by 7.9% and 8.3% respectively.

The key initiatives in our 2015 business plan have been successfully executed throughout the year and as a result of our total team effort. We have made meaningful progress in applying technology applications to expand customer relationships and to create new business opportunities. This month we completed the consolidation of one of our branches into another branch located within 0.5 mile due to its lease expiration and an opportunity to improve operational efficiencies. While there is more work to be done in the coming year, we are encouraged by the commitment of our entire CPB team and the improving business climate in Hawaii.

That completes my summary. And I will now turn the call back to Catherine for her closing remarks. Catherine?

Thank you, Lance. We believe our Company is well-positioned for market share growth and improved efficiencies in 2016. We're prepared for the challenges that will come along with making continued progress, including an anticipated reduction in credits to our loan loss reserves as our asset quality normalizes. I would like to thank our employees, customers, and shareholders for their continued support and confidence in our organization as we work toward achieving our goals in the coming year.

At this time, we will be happy to address any questions you may have. Thank you.

(Operator Instructions)

Joe Morford, RBC.

Thanks. Good morning, everyone.

Good morning, Joe.

A question first on loan growth -- it was particularly strong the past couple of quarters and fairly broad-based as well. So, just kind of curious how you're feeling about the sustainability of that issue heading into 2016, and just kind of general expectations for growth this year? And as part of that, do you expect to do any portfolio purchases or much in the way of participations in Shared National Credits?

Let me turn that question over to Lance. Lance?

Hey, Joe. This is Lance.

I think we have -- again, we had a very strong fourth quarter. And as I look at the pipeline going into 2016, at least for the first quarter, I think we're cautiously optimistic about healthy loan growth going forward.

The growth that we realized in the last two quarters was very healthy, and something that's probably not sustainable. A lot of -- some of that loan growth was due to some timing differences in fundings.

So, again, I don't think fourth quarter is necessarily indicative of the growth rate that we're going to realize in 2016. But going into 2016, I do anticipate, given a pipeline, that our growth will probably be in the high single-digit range.

Okay. That's great.

But as far as loan purchases, we're going to look at those in an opportunistic basis. So that if there is some churn in our mainland portfolios, we will try to see opportunities to maybe offset some of the churn. But we're not looking to see that as a big driver of growth.

And if you look at the fourth-quarter numbers, a bulk of our loan growth was organic. I would say about $101 million of it was local, and about $9 million was on the mainland.

Okay. Great. That's very helpful, Lance. Thank you.

I guess the other question was just kind of more broadly speaking -- just as you look at 2016, any kind of bigger initiatives that the Bank is looking at? As I recall, at one point you were talking about maybe something on the retail side, whether it's sales model or just service emphasis or things like that. Any kind of big-picture thoughts for 2016?

Sure. Let me take that question, Joe.

We're pleased to report, and this was in our prepared remarks, that we completed our [Encore] branch conversion in 2015. And that's our end-to-end system for our branches, and then of course, utilized by our back office groups.

Related to that there are a number of process improvements in thinking about the end-to-end process. So, we will continue to focus on being more efficient and leveraging that Encore system.

The other thing is, and in earlier calls we've talked about our enterprise data warehouse. And so, we're continuing to focus on leveraging the warehouse, including the buildout of the analytics, which really is the power behind that platform -- is better understanding our customers so that we can appreciate their needs and sell into those needs.

Okay. Thanks so much, Catherine.

Sure, Joe.

Aaron Deer, Sandler O'Neill.

Good morning, everybody. This is actually Alex Morris on for Aaron.

Good morning, Alex.

Just a quick follow-up question on the expenses, and I apologize if I missed this in the prepared remarks. The occupancy expense ticked up; was there a lease termination associated with the branch consolidation that you mentioned in the fourth quarter? Or something that drove the increase in occupancy?

David, would you take that question?

Yes. Thanks, Catherine. Hey, Alex.

There was about $350,000 of non-recurring expenses related to a buildout of a new branch. And so it's actually unrelated to the branch closure. But there was about $350,000 in non-recurring expenses in occupancy line this quarter.

Okay, great. And just related to that as a follow-up -- saw a bit of an uptick in advertising expense. Was there a new initiative that was put forth in the fourth quarter -- something that drove that?

I'll take that question. So, yes. That was what I think of as a one-time expense. And it's related to an advertising campaign that's actually going to be launching in the next week or so. So, it's the production expenses related to that ad.

Sure. So that's great. Thank you for that.

And then just to follow up on the loan question that came, you guys showed great growth this quarter. And you mentioned about opportunistically looking at some loan purchases in the quarter. Were there any purchases this quarter that supplemented the strong growth that you guys showed?

Lance, can you take that?

Hey, Alex. This is Lance again. As I mentioned, the fourth quarter, about $101 million was organic and about $9 million represented mainland purchases.

I apologize. Yes, you did say that. All right. That's all for me. I'll step back. Thank you for answering my questions.

Thank you.

Don Worthington, Raymond James.

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning, Don.

It looks like you had your really strong core deposit growth in the quarter. Anything in particular behind that, in terms of how you're being able to generate those balances?

Lance, do you want to take that?

Sure. Good morning, Don. I think part of our growth was driven a little bit by some real estate sales, and that liquidity flowed into our deposit base. We did see one significant 1031 exchange deposit that took place at the end of the year. But the bulk of our increase in deposits really was the efforts of our people in focusing in on getting core deposit growth.

Okay, great.

And then, in terms of capital deployment, how would you prioritize? I would guess organic loan growth would be first. But just trying to maybe get a little more color on timing of executing on the buyback.

Sure. Well, maybe I'll start by talking about the buyback. So, you can expect us, with where our stock is trading today, for us to be back out in the market in Q1, and rather aggressively.

And then, David, anything to add in regard to capital deployment?

I think the capital plan is consistent with what you've seen over the last couple of years. So, we'll obviously pay the regular cash dividend with a yield and pay-out ratio comparable to our peers. But we'll augment that with an ongoing share repurchase program, as Catherine mentioned.

And we are obviously looking to take advantage of the recent downturn in the Street valuations. So, we will be back in the market in the first quarter.

Okay, great. Thank you.

And then, I noticed that gain on sale of mortgages was down a little bit, linked quarter. Was that volume driven or based on, say, narrowing premiums?

David, can you take that?

Yes, sure. Yes, you're right. It was down slightly, $1.6 million to $1.3 million, sequential quarter. And it was primarily volume driven. So, the gain on sale margin was relatively stable for the two quarters, but we did see volume decrease by roughly 7% sequential quarter.

Okay, great. Thank you.

You're welcome.

(Operator Instructions)

John Moran, Macquarie Capital.

Hey, how's it going?

Hey, John.

Good morning.

Just two quick bigger-picture macro questions -- and just curious if you've seen any sort of early signs of a slowdown in visit or spend, given some of the international turmoil and dollar strength. And then the second one, unrelated, but with ASP and First Hawaiian and some of the things that's out there in the press, seeing any change in the competitive environment?

Maybe I'll start, and then I'll turn it to Lance to talk about the competitive environment.

But Hawaii is perhaps a bit of a microcosm in regard to how we think about the national economy. And so, in fact, the tourism numbers that we saw for last year were a record for us, and the spend remained high.

So, currently, for -- as we think about 2016, we are expecting a strong year. I mentioned the unemployment numbers that were announced recently for December, 3.2%, which is the lowest rate in eight years. So, we are expecting a strong economy here in Hawaii, as we think about the tourism numbers and then also as we look at construction in the state.

Lance?

Yes. Good morning, John.

I think with regards to the two banks, I'll take maybe American Savings first. I think they've been doing business as usual. They've been focusing on their activities. And we haven't seen any significant change in their efforts thus far.

I think for First Hawaiian Bank, it's really early to tell if there's going to be any, or there has been any significant changes in the way they operate their business. As you know, they did make that announcement late December. So, given the market conditions and given the fact that it's, again, very early in the ballgame -- I just think it's too early to tell what kind of moves they're going to be making going forward.

Sure, okay. That's helpful.

And then just wanted to circle back on maybe margin outlook a little bit. I understand that you guys aren't wildly asset-sensitive or so. And it sounds like, David, you're expecting pretty stable NIM. But if you could help tease out a little bit in terms of maybe new money yields on -- and replacement yields in the securities book and on the loan side of things, and give us a flavor of where you see things trending over the next quarter or two?

Sure. So, John, on the new volume yields on the investment side, we have been investing. In the fourth quarter, we did come in on the duration scale slightly. So, new volume investment yields probably averaged about 2% in the fourth quarter relative to the portfolio yield dollars, more like 2.60%.

On the loan side, it was a lot better story, much closer. New volume yields were much closer to the overall portfolio. Overall portfolio yield on -- overall new volume yields was about 3.70%, weighted average of 3.70% versus a portfolio yield of roughly 3.85%.

That is perfect. Thanks very much for taking the questions.

No problem, John.

This will conclude our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ms. Ngo for closing remarks.

Thank you, Allison.

Thank you very much for participating in our earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2015. We look forward to future opportunities to update you on our progress.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.