Below is transcript of the United Community Banks, Inc. (NASDAQ:UCBI)’s Fourth Quarter 2014 Earnings Conference Call, held on Wednesday, January 21, 2015, at 11:00 am EST. Corsair Capital Llc, Iszo Capital and Millennium Management was among United Community Banks, Inc. (NASDAQ:UCBI) shareholders at the end of the third quarter.
United Community Banks, Inc. (NASDAQ:UCBI) is a bank holding company of United Community Bank (the Bank), Blairsville, Georgia. United conducts all of its operations through a community focused operating model of separate community banks, which as of December 31, 2012, operated at 105 locations throughout north Georgia, the Atlanta, Georgia MSA, the Gainesville, Georgia MSA, coastal Georgia, western North Carolina, east Tennessee and the Greenville-Mauldin-Easley, South Carolina MSA.
Company Executives:
Jimmy Tallent, President and Chief Executive Officer
Lynn Harton, Chief Operating Officer
Rex Schuette, Chief Financial Officer
David Shearrow, Chief Risk Officer.
Analyst:
Michael Rose-Raymond James, Raymond James
Brad Milsaps, Sandler O’Neill
Jennifer Demba, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
Kevin Fitzsimmons, Hovde Group
Nancy Bush, NAB Research, LLC
Christopher Marinac, FIG Partners
Jefferson Harralson, KBW
Matt Olney, Stephens
Bruce Roberts, FinTrust Advisors.
Operator
Good morning, and welcome to United Community Banks’ [NASDAQ:UCBI] Fourth Quarter Conference Call. Hosting the call today are President and Chief Executive Officer, Jimmy Tallent; Chief Operating Officer, Lynn Harton; Chief Financial Officer, Rex Schuette; and Chief Risk Officer, David Shearrow. United’s presentation today includes references to core pretax, pre-credit earnings and other non-GAAP financial information. For each of these non-GAAP financial measures, United has provided reconciliation to GAAP in the Financial Highlights section of the news release and at the end of the investor presentation. Both are included on the website at ucbi.com.
Copies of today’s earnings release and investor presentation for the fourth quarter were filed this morning on Form 8-K with the SEC, and a replay of this call will be available on the company’s Investor Relations page at ucbi.com. Please be aware that, during this call, forward-looking statements may be made by United Community Banks [NASDAQ:UCBI]. Any forward-looking statements should be considered in light of risks and uncertainties described on Page 4 of the company’s Form 10-K and other information provided by the company in its filings with the SEC and included on its website. At this time, we will begin the conference call with Jimmy Tallent.
Jimmy Tallent, President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning and thank you for joining our fourth quarter conference call. We ended 2014 with a solid quarter continuing to show steady progress in executing our business plan to grow revenue with positive operating leverage while improving earnings and performance for our shareholders. I’ll talk more about the drivers of our fourth quarter results, but let me begin with some highlights.Net income was $18.2 million or $0.30 per share. Earnings per share were up a solid 36% from a year-ago. Our return on assets increased to 96 basis points, up 1 basis point from the third quarter. Our return on common equity was 9.6%. Total revenue excluding the provision was $73.2 million, up $3.8 million or 5.5% from a year ago. Expenses were up less than 1%.
