Guaranty Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNTY) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Ty Abston: Matt, let me speak to that. I mean, like I said, we’re projecting, you know, conservative NIM going forward just because of the unknowns, but I would say that we have more of a tailwind than a headwind with net interest margin, because of the repricing of the asset side of our balance sheet. So I would anticipate that we can expand our margin very likely in ‘24. We’re just hesitant to come out and say that directly, because just everything we’ve seen in the last year with the moves in rates and the migration of deposits within all banks balance sheets. So we certainly don’t see it losing a lot of significant margin from here. We’re very likely can actually expand it, but we’re just trying to be conservative in how we’re projecting it, given the unknowns at this point.

Matt Olney: Okay, thanks for that, Ty. And then on the loan side, I think Shalene mentioned that the contraction of loan balances on it was on the construction side. As those loans move at construction phase, any more color on are those being refinanced within the bank or into other banks or with other investors? Any kind of general commentary you have on those construction loans when they reach the end of that construction phase?

Ty Abston: It would be a mix of both. Some of them are going on mini-perm within the bank. Some of them are exiting the bank depending on the project and the plans when we went into the construction piece of it. So I think it would be a mix of both.

Matt Olney: Okay, thanks for that. And then I guess there were a few credits that were called out in the press release as far as the downgrades. And I guess specifically the loan that’s in Austin. Appreciate all the color you guys gave us there. Any color on what type of CRE loan this is? And it sounds like you expect some resolution in the near-term. Just any color on the appraisal process or kind of why you expect resolution there I think before the end of the year?

Ty Abston: Yes, it’s part of a bigger group and they have multiple properties. This property is self-cash flows, so it actually cash flows itself. The project cash flows with the debt we have. But we’re just working through a bigger group of loans that this group has that are not in our bank. This is the only credit we have. But ours is one we think will be resolved pretty quickly as part of overall resolution of this company. And we’re very comfortable with it, where it’s located. The top property is cash flow. We just felt like giving everything going on with the borrower, it made sense to downgrade it.

Matt Olney: Okay, and then I guess more broadly, just the loan portfolio. I think this one was in the Austin market. Any color on just how much exposure the bank has in that Austin market just overall at this point?

Ty Abston : I mean, not at this point. We don’t see any real loss exposure. I mean, I think, like I’ve said before, with rates moving up where they’ve moved, you’re going to see one-off credits bubble up to the surface and have some weakness in all portfolios. I think the key is to make sure that you have capacity to handle those, which we keep our decks pretty clear, as far as problem assets and to proactively work on those credits. We’ve been aggressively moving credits out of the bank if we felt like it was either weak or we felt like it would turn, you know, it could become a weak credit in a different rate environment or economic environment. And our goal is to, as we identify credits to work those, get them shored up or get them moved out of the bank and kind of position ourselves where we could — we’re able to handle others, if we do see other credits that surface in the environment, we’re going to see going forward with higher rates and potentially slower economic activity.