Park Sterling Corporation Announces Results for Second Quarter 2016

CHARLOTTE, NC --(Marketwired - July 28, 2016) - Park Sterling Corporation (NASDAQ: PSTB), the holding company for Park Sterling Bank, today released unaudited results of operations and other financial information for the second quarter of 2016. Highlights at and for the three months ended June 30, 2016 include:

Highlights

• Net income of $5.6 million, or $0.11 per share, compared to $2.7 million, or $0.05 per share, in the quarter ended March 31, 2016
• Adjusted net income, which excludes merger-related expenses and gain or loss on sale of securities, increased $275,000 (4%) to $6.4 million, or $0.12 per share, compared to $6.2 million, or $0.12 per share, in the prior quarter
• Noninterest income grew 14% over first quarter 2016 with strong performance across several categories
• Noninterest expenses declined from the first quarter of 2016
• Loans, including loans held for sale, showed steady growth of $52.0 million, representing a 9% annualized growth rate
• Nonperforming loans to total loans decreased 9 basis points to 0.33% from 0.42% at March 31, 2016
• Nonperforming assets to total assets decreased 9 basis points to 0.35% from 0.44% at March 31, 2016
• Capital levels remained strong with total common equity to total assets of 11.17%, tangible common equity to tangible assets of 9.00% and Tier 1 leverage ratio of 10.06%
• Core systems conversion with First Capital Bancorp, Inc. were completed (May 2016)
• The Board of Directors declared a 33% increase in the quarterly cash dividend on common shares to $0.04 per share (July 2016)

"We are delighted to report strong results for the second quarter of 2016," said James C. Cherry, Chief Executive Officer. "For the quarter, we achieved higher profitability and returns driven by steady loan growth, strong increases in noninterest income sources and reduced expenses. Our solid financial condition reflects superior asset quality and healthy capital and liquidity levels.

On the capital management front, yesterday the board declared a 33% increase in the quarterly dividend to $0.04 per common share from the prior level of $0.03 per share, payable on August 23, 2016 to all shareholders of record as of the close of business on August 9, 2016. Future dividends will be subject to board approval. Additionally, during the second quarter we repurchased approximately 150,000 shares under our previously announced 2.2 million share repurchase program.

We remain committed to build a full-service, highly regarded regional community bank. With the successful conversion of First Capital Bancorp's core systems onto the Park Sterling platform, we now have a company operating on common core systems with $3.2 billion in assets serving customers through 56 branches in highly attractive markets across the Carolinas, Virginia and North Georgia. The second quarter results reflect management's focus in 2016 on improving performance by leveraging Park Sterling's distinguishing strengths. These include our position in high growth markets, exceptionally talented and experienced bankers, quality products and services, solid financial condition and strong risk culture."

Financial Results

Income Statement -- Three Months Ended June 30, 2016

Park Sterling reported net income of $5.6 million, or $0.11 per share, for the three months ended June 30, 2016 ("2016Q2"). This compares to net income of $2.7 million, or $0.05 per share, for the three months ended March 31, 2016 ("2016Q1") and net income of $4.3 million, or $0.10 per share, for the three months ended June 30, 2015 ("2015Q2"). The increase in net income from both 2016Q1 and 2015Q2 resulted primarily from reduced merger -related costs in 2016Q2 as well as an increase in net interest income from 2015Q2 and noninterest income compared to 2016Q1 and 2015Q2.

Park Sterling reported adjusted net income, which excludes merger-related expenses and gain or loss on sale of securities, of $6.4 million, or $0.12 per share, in 2016Q2. This compares to adjusted net income of $6.2 million, or $0.12 per share, in 2016Q1 and adjusted net income of $4.4 million, or $0.10 per share, in 2015Q2. Compared to 2016Q1 and 2015Q2, adjusted net income reflects higher noninterest income and lower noninterest expense.

Net interest income totaled $26.1 million in 2016Q2, which represents a $547 thousand, or 2%, decrease from $26.6 million in 2016Q1 and a $5.4 million, or 26%, increase from $20.6 million in 2015Q2. Average total earning assets increased $9.5 million in 2016Q2 to $2.84 billion, compared to $2.83 billion in 2016Q1 and increased $657.7 million, or 30%, compared to $2.19 billion in 2015Q2. The increase in average total earning assets in 2016Q2 from 2016Q1 included an increase in average loans (including loans held for sale) of $23.7 million, or 1%, offset by decreases in average marketable securities of $5.0 million, or 1%, and average other interest-earning assets of $9.3 million, or 17%. The increase in average total earning assets in 2016Q2 from 2015Q2 resulted primarily from a $654.7 million, or 40%, increase in average loans (including loans held for sale) as a result of both organic growth and the acquisition of First Capital and a $9.4 million, or 2%, increase in average marketable securities, offset by a $6.4 million, or 12%, decrease in average other earning assets.

Net interest margin was 3.69% in 2016Q2, representing a 9 basis point decrease from 3.78% in both 2016Q1 and 2015Q2. The decrease in net interest margin from 2016Q1 resulted primarily from a 12 basis point decrease in yield on loans to 4.68%, as the yield on loans in 2016Q1 was driven by a higher level of accretion of the acquired performing fair value mark related to the acquisition of First Capital loans. In addition, the cost of interest-bearing liabilities increased 2 basis points from 2016Q1 as the cost of wholesale funding increased slightly. The reduction in net interest margin yield from 20152Q is significantly impacted by the merger with First Capital which was completed on January 1, 2016. The change was primarily driven by higher rates on interest bearing deposits and the cost associated with the $30 million senior term loan that was used to partially fund the merger, offset in part by the addition of higher yielding earning assets as a result of the merger.

The Company reported $882,000 of provision expense in 2016Q2, compared to $556,000 of provision recorded in 2016Q1, and a provision of $134,000 in 2015Q2. Allowance for loan loss levels increased to 0.47% of total loans at 2016Q2 compared to 0.43% at 2016Q1 due to an increase in the qualitative component of the allowance.

Noninterest income increased $648,000, or 14%, to $5.4 million in 2016Q2, compared to $4.7 million in 2016Q1 and increased $1.1 million, or 25%, compared to $4.3 million in 2015Q2. The increase from 2016Q1 was driven primarily by a $699,000 volume-related increase in capital markets income, as well as a $203,000 increase in ATM and card income that resulted from year-to-date EMV-chip card conversion cost adjustments. Other increases include a $122,000, or 83%, decrease in FDIC loss share indemnification asset and true-up liability expense as we approach the expiration date of another agreement and a $98,000, or 13%, increase in mortgage banking income. Partially offsetting these increases was a $462,000, or 47%, decrease in BOLI income due in part to $402,000 of death benefits received in 2016Q1 and an additional $81,000 of losses on the sale of securities. The increase in noninterest income from 2015Q2 reflects higher capital markets income, as well as higher service charges on deposit accounts and lower amortization on the FDIC loss share indemnification asset and true-up liability expense, offset partially by lower income from mortgage banking and wealth management activities.

Noninterest expenses decreased $4.2 million, or 16%, to $21.9 million in 2016Q2 compared to $26.2 million in 2016Q1, and increased $3.7 million, or 20%, compared to $18.2 million in 2015Q2. Adjusted noninterest expenses, which exclude merger-related expenses ($1.3 million in 2016Q2, $5.2 million in 2016Q1 and $167,000 in 2015Q2), decreased $282 thousand, or 1%, to $20.7 million in 2016Q2 compared to $21.0 million in 2016Q1, and increased $2.6 million, or 14%, compared to $18.1 million in 2015Q2. Overall the decrease in adjusted noninterest expenses from 2016Q1 was due primarily to a $351,000 decrease in salaries and compensation expense due to the 2016Q1 increase in the incentive accrual and the realization of additional merger related cost savings. The other notable decrease was the net cost of operation of OREO, which in 2016Q1 included a loss on the sale of a branch that had been transferred to OREO in 2015. Offsetting these decreases was an increase in loan and collection expense due to a recent HELOC program for which the company absorbs borrower closing costs, as well as the timing of loan activity. The increase in adjusted noninterest expenses from 2015Q2 is primarily a function of the merger with First Capital.

The company's effective tax rate was 35.4% in 2016Q2, compared to 40.6% in 2016Q1 and 34.7% in 2015Q2. During 2016Q1, the rate was impacted by certain non-deductible merger-related expenses and adjustments made to deferred tax assets for the true-up in tax rates and re-measurement due to the First Capital merger, partially offset by the non-taxable BOLI death benefits received in 2016Q1.

Balance Sheet

Total assets increased $20.3 million, or 1%, to $3.2 billion at 2016Q2, as compared to total assets of $3.2 billion at 2016Q1. Cash and equivalents decreased $22.6 million, or 28%, to $69.9 million and total securities, including non-marketable securities, decreased $4.8 million, to $509.7 million. Total loans, excluding loans held for sale, increased $47.8 million, or 8% annualized, to $2.3 billion at 2016Q2.

Loan mix remained relatively consistent with 2016Q1. The combination of commercial and industrial and owner-occupied real estate loans decreased slightly from 31.1% to 30.6% of total loans, and investor-owned commercial real estate loans increased from 31.7% to 32.8% of total loans. Acquisition, construction and development loans decreased to 13.8% from 14.2% of total loans. Total consumer loans remained flat at 22% of total loans.

In terms of accounting designations, compared to 2016Q1: (i) non-acquired loans, which include certain renewed and/or restructured acquired performing loans that are re-designated as non-acquired, increased $119.3 million, or 8%, to $1.6 billion; (ii) acquired performing loans decreased $64.1 million, or 9%, to $661.9 million; and (iii) purchase credit impaired ("PCI") loans decreased $7.4 million, or 7%, to $98.7 million. At 2016Q2, noncovered performing acquired loans (which totaled $660.7 million) included a $4.9 million net acquisition accounting fair market value adjustment, representing a 0.74% "mark;" noncovered PCI loans (which totaled $85.4 million) included a $22.8 million adjustment, representing a 21.1% "mark;" and covered performing acquired and PCI loans (which totaled $14.5 million) included a $3.5 million adjustment, representing a 19.7% "mark."

Total deposits decreased $24.6 million, or 1%, to $2.5 billion at 2016Q2, as compared to total deposits of $2.5 billion at 2016Q1. Noninterest bearing demand deposits increased $27.1 million, or 6%, to $496.2 million (20% of total deposits). Non-brokered money market, NOW and savings deposits decreased $22.6 million, or 2%, to $1.2 billion (47% of total deposits). Time deposits less than $250,000 decreased $9.1 million, or 2%, to $547.6 million (22% of total deposits) and time deposits greater than $250,000 decreased $11.7 million, or 10%, to $108.1 million (4% of total deposits). Finally, brokered deposits decreased $8.3 million, or 5%, to $152.2 million (6% of total deposits). Core deposits, which exclude time deposits greater than $250,000 and brokered deposits, represented 89.5% of total deposits at 2016Q2 and 88.8% of total deposits at 2016Q1.

Total borrowings increased $29.9 million, or 11%, to $297.8 million at 2016Q2 compared to $268.0 million at 2016Q1. Borrowings at 2016Q2 included $235.0 million in FHLB borrowings, $29.7 million in a senior unsecured term loan at the bank holding company level, and $33.2 million of acquired trust preferred securities, net of acquisition accounting fair market value adjustments.

Total shareholders' equity increased $4.9 million, or 1%, to $354.5 million at 2016Q2 compared to $349.5 million at 2016Q1, driven by an increase in retained earnings and higher unrealized gains related to available-for-sale securities and balance sheet interest rate hedges. The company's ratio of common equity to assets increased to 11.17% at 2016Q2 from 11.08% at 2016Q1. The company's ratio of tangible common equity to tangible assets increased to 9.00% at 2016Q2 from 8.87% at 2016Q1. The company's Common Equity Tier 1 ("CET1") ratio decreased to 11.14% at 2016Q2 compared to 11.11% at 2016Q1 due to an increase in risk weighted assets. The company's Tier 1 leverage ratio was 10.06% at 2016Q2 compared to 9.76% at 2016Q1.

Asset Quality

Asset quality continues to remain strong. Nonperforming assets were $11.0 million at 2016Q2, or 0.35% of total assets, compared to $14.0 million at 2016Q1, or 0.44% of total assets. Nonperforming loans were $7.8 million at 2016Q2, and represented 0.33% of total loans, compared to $9.6 million at 2016Q1, or 0.42% of total loans. The settlement of two loan relationships that were past due in 2016Q1 as well as the continued sales of other real estate owned contributed to the declines in both ratios. The company reported net recoveries of $159,000, or 0.03% of average loans (annualized), in 2016Q2, compared to net recoveries of $212,000, or 0.04% of average loans (annualized), in 2016Q1.

The allowance for loan losses increased $1 million, or 11%, to $10.9 million, or 0.47% of total loans, at 2016Q2, compared to $9.8 million, or 0.43% of total loans, at 2016Q1. The increase in allowance included (i) a $255,000, or 16%, decrease in the quantitative component, resulting from lower historic loss rates due to a net recovery in 2016Q2 and (ii) a $1.2 million or 15%, increase in the qualitative component, reflecting management's judgment of inherent loss in the loan portfolio not represented in historic loss rates, based on heightened general economic market uncertainty and increased financial market volatility which emerged toward the end of 2016Q2.

As contemplated during the Bank's 2010 public offering, the Company awarded certain performance-based restricted shares to officers and directors following the holding company reorganization. These shares vest one-third each when the Company's stock price per share reaches the following performance thresholds for 30 consecutive trading days: (i) 125% of offer price ($8.13); (ii) 140% of offer price ($9.10); and (iii) 160% of offer price ($10.40). These anti-dilutive restricted shares are issued (and thereby have voting rights), but are not included in earnings per share or tangible book value per share calculations until they vest (and thereby have economic rights). There were 436,590 shares outstanding at each of June 30, 2016 and March 31, 2016 and 554,400 shares outstanding at each of the reported quarters of 2015.

Conference Call

A conference call will be held at 8:30 a.m., Eastern Time this morning (July 28, 2016). The conference call can be accessed by dialing (877) 512-1104 and requesting the Park Sterling Corporation earnings call. Listeners should dial in 10 minutes prior to the start of the call. The live webcast and presentation slides will be available on www.parksterlingbank.com under Investor Relations, "Investor Presentations."

A replay of the webcast will be available on www.parksterlingbank.com under Investor Relations, "Investor Presentations" shortly following the call. A replay of the conference call can be accessed approximately one hour after the call by dialing (877) 344-7529 and requesting conference number 10087667.

About Park Sterling Corporation

Park Sterling Corporation, the holding company for Park Sterling Bank, is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Park Sterling, a regional community-focused financial services company with $3.2 billion in assets, is the largest community bank headquartered in the Charlotte area and has 56 banking offices stretching across the Carolinas and into North Georgia, as well as in Richmond, Virginia. The bank serves professionals, individuals, and small and mid-sized businesses by offering a full array of financial services, including deposit, mortgage banking, cash management, consumer and business finance, capital markets and wealth management services with a commitment to "Answers You Can Bank On℠." Park Sterling prides itself on being large enough to help customers achieve their financial aspirations, yet small enough to care that they do. Park Sterling is focused on building a banking franchise that is noted for sound risk management, strong community focus and exceptional customer service. For more information, visit www.parksterlingbank.com. Park Sterling Corporation shares are traded on NASDAQ under the symbol PSTB.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Tangible assets, tangible common equity, tangible book value, average tangible common equity, adjusted net income, adjusted operating revenues, adjusted noninterest income, adjusted noninterest expenses, adjusted operating expense, adjusted allowance for loan losses, and related ratios and per share measures, including adjusted return on average assets and adjusted return on average equity, as used throughout this release, are non-GAAP financial measures. For additional information, see "Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures" in the accompanying tables.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains, and Park Sterling and its management may make, certain statements that constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts and often use words such as "may," "plan," "contemplate," "anticipate," "believe," "intend," "continue," expect," "project," "predict," "estimate," "could," "should," "would," "will," "goal," "target" and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements express management's current expectations or forecasts of future events, results and conditions and, by their nature, are subject to risks and uncertainties and there are a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such statements. Factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to: synergies and other financial benefits from the merger with First Capital Bancorp, Inc. ("First Capital") may not be realized within the expected time frames; costs or difficulties related to integration matters might be greater than expected; changes in loan mix, deposit mix, capital and liquidity levels, emerging regulatory expectations and measures, net interest income, noninterest income, noninterest expense, credit trends and conditions, including loan losses, allowance for loan loss, charge-offs, delinquency trends and nonperforming asset levels, deterioration in the credit quality of the loan portfolio or the value of collateral securing loans, deterioration in the value of securities held for investment, the impacts of a potential increasing rate environment, and other similar matters; inability to identify and successfully negotiate and complete additional combinations with other potential merger partners or to successfully integrate such businesses into Park Sterling, including the company's ability to adequately estimate or to realize the benefits and cost savings from and limit any unexpected liabilities acquired as a result of any such business combinations; failure to generate an adequate return on investment related to new branches or other hiring initiatives; inability to generate future organic growth in loan balances, retail banking, wealth management, mortgage banking or capital markets results through the hiring of new personnel, development of new products, including new online and mobile banking platforms for treasury services, opening of de novo branches or otherwise; inability to capitalize on identified revenue enhancements or expense management opportunities, including the inability to achieve or maintain adjusted operating expense to adjusted operating revenue targets; inability to generate future ATM and card income from marketing expenses; variability in the performance of covered loans and associated loss-share related expenses; the effects of negative or soft economic conditions, including stress in the commercial real estate markets or failure of continued recovery in the residential real estate markets; changes in consumer and investor confidence and the related impact on financial markets and institutions; the possibility of recognizing other than temporary impairments on holdings of collateralized loan obligation securities as a result of the Volcker Rule; the potential impacts of any government shutdown or debt ceiling impasse, including the risk of a U.S. credit rating downgrade or default, or continued global economic instability, which could cause disruptions in the financial markets, impact interest rates, and cause other potential unforeseen consequences; fluctuations in the market price of the common stock, regulatory, legal and contractual requirements, other uses of capital, financial performance, market conditions generally, and future actions by the board of directors, in each case impacting repurchases of common stock or declaration of dividends; legal and regulatory developments, including changes in the federal risk-based capital rules; increased competition from both banks and nonbanks; changes in accounting standards, rules and interpretations, inaccurate estimates or assumptions in accounting, including acquisition accounting fair market value assumptions and accounting for purchased credit-impaired loans, and the impact on Park Sterling's financial statements; and management's ability to effectively manage credit risk, market risk, operational risk, legal risk, and regulatory and compliance risk.

You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statement and should consider all of the preceding uncertainties and risks, as well as those more fully discussed in any of Park Sterling's filings with the SEC. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and Park Sterling undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect the impact of circumstances or events that arise after the date the forward-looking statement was made.