Cadence Bank

Good morning, and thank you for joining the Cadence Bank first quarter 2282 earnings conference call. We have our executive management team here with us this morning, Dan, Paul, Chris, Valerie, and Hank. Our speakers will be referring to prepared slides during the discussion. You can find the slides by going to our investor relations page at ir.cadencebank.com, where you'll find them on the link to our webcast, or you can view them at the exhibit to the 8K that we filed yesterday afternoon. These slides are also in the presentation section of our investor relations website. I would remind you that the presentation, along with our earnings release, contain our customary disclosures around forward-looking statements and any non-gap metrics that may be discussed this morning. And now I'll turn to Dan Rollins for his opening comments.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss Cadence Bank's first quarter 2022 financial results. Paul and I will cover a few highlights this morning, as well as provide an update on our integration efforts. Valerie will discuss the financial results in more detail. Chris and Hank will provide some additional color on our frontline efforts. And after we conclude our prepared comments, our executive management team will be happy to answer questions. It is an interesting time in our industry, given the economic trends, including the rate environment and inflationary pressures, as well as the political instability overseas. We are frequently asked questions about how these dynamics are impacting our business as well as our customers. While we are watchful for the possible impacts of these issues, I am pleased with the strength and stability of our footprint and specifically our customers. We continue to be pleased with our fundamental operating performance, including our growth efforts. We reported net income available to common shareholders for the quarter of $112.6 million or $0.60 per diluted share in and adjusted net income available to common shareholders of 121.6 million, or 65 cents per diluted common share. The only material non-operating item this quarter was just over 10 million in merger-related expenses. Importantly, credit quality continues to be a bright spot for us. We reported net recoveries of 400,000 for the quarter, which marks the fourth consecutive quarter we've been able to post net recoveries. We also reported a 22% decline in non-performing loans and leases during the quarter from an already relatively low position. From a balance sheet perspective, we reported net organic loan growth of over $300 million or 4.6% annualized and total deposit and customer repo growth of over $750 million or 7.7% annualized. Our loan growth this quarter was primarily within our CNI portfolio. while the deposit growth, which has historically been seasonally high in the first quarter, was primarily driven by growth in non-interest DDA balances, which is a positive for us. From a capital management perspective, we repurchased just over 5 million shares during the quarter, and our board increased the common dividend to 22 cents per share per quarter, marking the 10th consecutive year of dividend increases. I believe both of these actions demonstrate our board and management team's confidence in the future of the new Cadence Bank. Paul, I'll let you add some comments.

Thanks, Dan, and good morning to everyone. I continue to be very pleased with the progress we're making. The benefits of our merger from our customer, shareholders, and teammates standpoint all feel very positive to me. From talking to others around the industry, it feels like our cultural fit is probably ahead of where some of the other deals are. We're working well together, and collaboration is very high. We've done extensive planning and testing for our conversion, which is in line with our original timeframe, expecting to do our conversion in the early fourth quarter of this year. We're seeing pretty positive growth for customers really throughout the footprint. Texas and Florida stood out this quarter from a community bank standpoint, and our corporate and specialty teams reported nice growth throughout the footprint. As I spend time with our bankers, we're making a lot of calls. We're out knocking on doors. We've returned to the office. It's a bit of a hybrid model. but we're out looking for, of course, loans, deposits, but assets under management and more insurance business. We're doing a lot of blocking and tackling, and the key notion here is that core growth is a key driver of shareholder value, and we're very determined and focused on delivering that. With that, I'll turn it over to Valerie.