Huntington Beats Energy Blues, Reports Increased Profit

Huntington Bancshares in Columbus, Ohio, withstood issues in its energy portfolio to report higher quarterly profit.

The $73 billion-asset company said in a press release Wednesday that its first-quarter profit rose 3% from a year earlier to $171.3 million.

Huntington’s revenue rose 7% to $754.1 million. Total loans increased 8% to $51.5 billion, while deposits rose 6% to $65.5 million.

While overall credit quality remained solid, the company ran into problems with what it termed “a small number of energy sector loan relationships.” As a result, nonperforming assets jumped 31% to $525 million. Still, Huntington’s ratio of nonperforming loans to total loans ended the quarter at a manageable 1.02%. The energy portfolio represents less than 1% of total loans.

“You’ve heard me say this in the past and I’ll say it again; our focus remains on growing revenue,” Steinour said during a conference call to discuss quarterly results. “We continue to grow revenue despite a challenging environment.”

Steve Steinour, Huntington’s chairman, president, and chief executive, said he expects the company to achieve revenue growth of 4% to 6% this year. He said Huntington plans to complete its acquisition of the $25.4 billion-asset FirstMerit in the third quarter. The deal, announced in January, is expected to be immediately accretive to Huntington’s earnings.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Ohio
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER