Home BancShares 1Q Profit, Assets Rise through Acquisitions

Home BancShares in Conway, Ark., reported higher first-quarter profit and assets after it acquired branches and loans from the failed Doral Bank in Puerto Rico.

First-quarter profit rose 13.8% to $31.1 million, from a year earlier. Earnings per share of 46 cents missed the 47.8-cent average estimate of analysts polled by Bloomberg. After excluding several one-time items, earnings were 47 cents per share.

Total assets at the parent company of Centennial Bank rose 11% to $7.5 billion.

Home acquired assets from Doral Bank in two separate transactions. It first acquired five branches in the Florida Panhandle in February, when regulators shut the $5.9 billion-asset Doral. As part of the branch deal, Home acquired $37.9 million in total loans and $466 million in deposits.

Earlier this month, Home acquired $289 million of former Doral commercial real estate loans from J.C. Flowers & Co., a private-equity firm. J.C. Flowers had acquired the loans during Doral's failure proceedings.

Net interest income increased 2.7% to $79.1 million. Noninterest income rose 20% to $14.7 million, mainly on a $1.6 million one-time gain stemming from the company's purchase of Doral's operations in the Florida Panhandle.

Noninterest expense rose 3% to $40.7 million on higher merger-related expenses. The efficiency ratio fell 66 basis points to 41.41%, as it closed one Florida branch during the quarter. Home BancShares plans to close two more locations this quarter.

Also in the first quarter, Home moved $56.3 million in commercial real estate and commercial-and-industrial loans to non-covered status, after five-year loss-share agreements expired. The loans were acquired from two failed banks, Old Southern Bank in Orlando, Fla., and Key West Bank in Key West, Fla.

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