CommunityOne Bancorp fka COB

[Enterprising Investor]

CommunityOne Bancorp Announces Fifth Consecutive Quarterly Profit and Continued Strong Loan Growth (10/31/14)

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct. 31, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CommunityOne Bancorp ("Company") (Nasdaq:COB), the holding company for CommunityOne Bank, N.A. ("Bank"), today reported its unaudited financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2014. Highlights include:

• The third quarter was the Company's fifth consecutive profitable quarter.

• Net income in 3Q 2014 was $1.8 million, and $3.8 million excluding a charge of $2.1 million relating to the departure of the Company's CEO during the quarter.

• Pre-Credit and Non-Recurring (PCNR) earnings were $2.0 million.

• Loan growth continued to be strong and broad based in the third quarter. Loans grew $48.3 million, an annualized growth rate of over 15%, a continuation of the second quarter's 16% annualized growth rate.

• The Company continued to grow commercial, real estate and residential mortgage lending capacity, hiring nine bankers during the quarter as part of its geographic expansion into Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and Raleigh and its external mortgage channel expansion.

• Positive credit performance continued in 3Q 2014, resulting in a net recovery of loan loss provision of $1.7 million. Net charge-offs were $0.8 million, and annualized net charge-offs as a percent of average loans held for investment were 0.24% during the quarter. The Company had net OREO recovery of $29 thousand during the quarter.

• Asset quality continued to improve as nonperforming assets fell 9% from 2Q 2014 and 42% from 3Q 2013. Nonperforming assets fell to their lowest levels since the recapitalization in 2011 and were 2.4% of total assets.

• Net interest income grew at over a 3% annualized rate in the third quarter to $15.8 million. Net interest margin was stable at 3.38% in the quarter, down 2 bps from the previous quarter.

• Noninterest expenses decreased $1.3 million excluding the $2.1 million charge relating to the departure of the Company's CEO. Excluding the one-time charge, personnel and benefit expenses increased primarily related to loan origination personnel additions during the quarter, offset by lower OREO and collection costs of $1.3 million. Full time equivalent employees have been reduced 7% year over year.

"During the quarter, we continued our momentum by growing loans and deposits, achieving our end of year 2014 goal of a 75% loan to deposit ratio," noted Bob Reid, President and CEO. "Our credit quality also continues to track ahead of plan and we expect that to continue. Despite a significant charge related to the departure of our CEO, I am pleased we made significant progress on our key goals and delivered our fifth consecutive quarter of profitability. We continue to focus on reducing noninterest expense as well as our nonperforming assets, even as we make investments in new personnel, new markets and new products to drive growth."

Third Quarter Financial Results

Results of Operations

Net income after-tax was $1.8 million for the third quarter of 2014, compared to $2.8 million in the second quarter of 2014 and $4.0 million in the third quarter of 2013. Excluding the $2.1 million charge relating to the departure of the Company's CEO during the quarter, net income after-tax was $3.8 million. Fully diluted net income per share was $0.08 per share in the third quarter of 2014, compared to $0.13 per share and $0.18 per share in the second quarter of 2014 and the third quarter of 2013, respectively. Pre-credit and non-recurring item (PCNR) earnings of $2.0 million, which exclude taxes, credit costs and provision, and non-recurring income and expenses, were $0.5 million lower than the $2.6 million in the second quarter of 2014, and $2.7 million lower than the $4.7 million in the third quarter of 2013.

Third quarter financial results included a $1.7 million recovery of loan loss provision resulting from continued improvement in loss rates and credit quality of the non-purchased impaired loan portfolio. Net interest income also increased $0.1 million on an increase in average loans held for investment of $51.1 million in the quarter, and noninterest income fell $0.9 million on reduced securities gains during the third quarter. Noninterest expense increased by $0.7 million in the quarter, primarily related to severance costs of $2.1 million incurred in connection with the departure of the Company's CEO.

Loan and Deposits

Loan growth across all business lines continued to be very strong during the third quarter, reflecting good loan demand, portfolio growth across all our businesses and the impact of market expansion and recent personnel additions. Loans grew by just under 4% in the third quarter, an annualized growth rate of 15%, which is a continuation of last quarter's 16% annualized growth rate. Loan balances grew by $48.3 million in the third quarter to $1.32 billion, compared to $1.27 billion at the end of the second quarter, and the company reached its end of year 2014 loans to deposit ratio goal of 75%. Excluding our purchased residential mortgage loan pools, our organic loan growth was even stronger at $56.9 million during the quarter, an annualized growth rate of 22%. Pass rated loans grew $60.5 million in the third quarter, an annualized growth rate of 21%, reflecting continued improvement in the asset quality of the loan portfolio.

Loan growth was in part the result of investments in expanded commercial, real estate and residential mortgage lending capacity through hiring and geographic expansion during the second and third quarters of this year in Raleigh, Greensboro and Winston-Salem. During the third quarter, we hired seven commercial and real estate bankers in Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and Raleigh and two new residential mortgage loan officers in our non-branch sales channel focused on Charlotte and other metro markets. We expect these new hires will sustain our accelerated pace of loan growth and enhance our mortgage loan sales income in the fourth quarter of 2014 and beyond.

Total deposits have increased $10.2 million, or 1%, year to date in 2014. Net of matured brokered deposits of $10.1 million during the third quarter, deposits increased by $5.3 million, and were $1.76 billion at the end of the quarter. Low cost core deposits, consisting of all non-time deposits, grew $4.6 million during the third quarter.

Net Interest Income

Third quarter net interest income was $15.8 million, up just less than 1% compared to $15.7 million in the second quarter of 2014, and an annualized growth rate of over 3%. Accretion, net of contractual interest collected, on purchased impaired loans was $0.8 million in the third quarter, compared to $0.7 million, and $2.0 million in the second quarter of 2014 and the third quarter of 2013, respectively.

The Company's net interest margin was 3.38% for the third quarter of 2014, down slightly from 3.40% in the second quarter of 2014, and lower by 38 basis points from 3.76% in the third quarter of last year, principally as a result of the decrease in non-cash accretion of $1.2 million from the prior year. The 2 basis point decline in the net interest margin in the third quarter of 2014 over the second quarter was the result of an 8 basis point decrease in loan yield during the quarter principally from decreased mortgage loan fees earned from loan prepayments and a 15 basis point decrease in the yield on investments as a result of approximately $25 million in investment portfolio sales during the quarter, offset by an improved earning asset mix resulting from strong loan origination and the investment portfolio sales. The cost of interest- bearing deposits was flat during the quarter from the previous quarter at 48 basis points, while the cost of all deposit funding fell 1 bp during the quarter to 39 bps.

Asset Quality and Provision for Loan Losses

Nonperforming assets, including nonaccruing loans, loans over 90 days delinquent and still accruing not accounted for under purchased impaired loan accounting, and other real estate owned and repossessed loan collateral, continued to improve and fell to the lowest level since the recapitalization in 2011. These assets fell to $48.8 million, or 2.4% of total assets at the end of the third quarter, compared to $53.6 million, or 2.7% of total assets, at the end of the second quarter. Other real estate owned and repossessed loan collateral fell by 7% during the third quarter to $20.3 million, and fell by $12.9 million, or 39%, compared to the same quarter last year. For the third quarter, the Company had a net OREO recovery of $29 thousand, which included gains on the sale of OREO of $0.2 million.

The allowance for loan losses was $21.5 million, or 1.63% of loans held for investment, at the end of the third quarter, compared to $24.0 million, or 1.89%, at the end of the previous quarter, and $25.4 million, or 2.12%, at the end of the third quarter of last year. Recovery of provision for loan losses was $1.7 million in the third quarter compared to a recovery of provision of $1.7 million in the second quarter, and a recovery of provision of $0.4 million in the third quarter of 2013. The recovery of provision in the third quarter includes a $1.9 million recovery of provision in the non-purchased impaired loan portfolio as a result of continued improvements in historical loss rates utilized in our allowance for loan loss model, offset by $0.2 million provision related to reductions in the cash flow forecast during the quarter on the purchased impaired loan portfolio. The year to date annualized net charge-off rate on average loans increased slightly to 0.13% in the third quarter, compared to 0.07% in the second quarter. Year to date, our annualized charge-off rate is 0.24% compared to 0.26% for the full year 2013.

Noninterest Income

For the third quarter, PCNR noninterest income was $4.0 million, a decline of $0.2 million compared to $4.2 million in the previous quarter. Total noninterest income was also $4.0 million in the third quarter, compared to $4.8 million in the second quarter of 2014, principally related to $0.7 million of securities gains on the sale of an SBIC investment last quarter.

Mortgage loan income fell during the third quarter based on lower loan origination volumes and decreased origination of loans sold to Fannie Mae. During the quarter, we originated $40.5 million of mortgage loans, a decrease of 4% from the second quarter, including $14.7 million of loans for sale to Fannie Mae. Service charges fell by 2% during the third quarter of 2014 to $1.6 million, on increased service charge refunds during the quarter. Trust and investment services income fell $55 thousand from the previous quarter on reduced annuity sales activity.

Noninterest Expense

Total noninterest expense rose by $0.7 million in the third quarter from the prior quarter on nonrecurring expenses of $2.1 million related to the CEO severance costs of $2.1 during the quarter, offset by $1.3 million reduction in OREO and loan collection expenses and $0.2 million lower FDIC insurance charges. Excluding the $2.1 million CEO severance charge, noninterest expenses were $1.3 million, or 7%, lower than the second quarter.

Pre-Credit and Non-Recurring (PCNR) noninterest expense, which excludes merger, OREO, collection, and other non-recurring expenses, was $17.8 million, an increase of $0.5 million in the third quarter from the prior quarter, primarily as a result of the impact of new hires in the commercial and residential mortgage teams and benefit expenses. Average full time equivalent employees (FTE) were 568, up 2% from 558 in the second quarter on loan origination personnel hiring, but have been reduced 7% from 608 from the prior year.

Conference Call

A conference call will be held at 11:00 a.m., Eastern time this morning October 31st, 2014. Interested parties should dial in five to ten minutes prior to the scheduled start time to 1-866-235-9913. The webcast may be accessed via the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at www.community1.com. The webcast replay will be available until October 31, 2015. The teleconference replay will be available one hour after the end of the conference through November 13, 2014 at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. To access the teleconference replay, dial toll free in the U.S. to 1-877-344-7529 or outside the U.S. to 1-412-317-0088 and provide Conference ID Number 10053403.

About CommunityOne Bancorp

CommunityOne Bancorp is the North Carolina-based bank holding company for CommunityOne Bank, N.A., a $2 billion community bank, operating 50 branches throughout North Carolina, offering a wide variety of consumer, mortgage and commercial banking services to retail and business customers, including loans, deposits, treasury management, wealth and online banking. Investors can obtain additional information about the Company and the Bank through reviewing its website at www.community1.com.

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