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Huntington posts strong first quarter results
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
Providing a unique customer experience has helped to drive growth for Huntington Bank, the bank’s Mahoning Valley Regional President Bill Shivers said.
Expense control, deposit growth and strong capital markets also helped to drive growth in the first quarter for Huntington Bancshares Inc.
On Wednesday, the Columbus-based bank reported net income for 2015’s first quarter at $166 million — a $17 million increase from the same quarter a year ago.
Earnings per common share for the 2015 first quarter were 19 cents, an increase of $0.02 from the year-ago quarter.
“We are pleased with our first quarter,” Shivers said. “Business is still very positive [here in the Valley]. We are very excited about the opportunity to serve the area and bring on new clients.”
Huntington has a six-state retail banking presence in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, West Virginia and Kentucky with more than 700 traditional branches and other branches.
Deposits for the bank during the first quarter of 2015 increased by 10 percent, or $4.5 billion year over year. This was driven by a $3.6 billion increase in average core deposits.
Average earning assets for the 2015 first quarter increased $6.2 billion, or 11 percent, from the year-ago quarter, driven by loan growth.
The company saw positive loan growth in commercial and auto lending. Huntington recently found out it is No. 2 in the nation in units for Small Business Administration lending after the first six months of the SBA fiscal year; No. 5 in the nation in dollars for SBA lending and No. 1 in units and in dollars in Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania.
Commercial and industrial loans increased by 8 percent or $1.5 billion. Auto loans increased by 29 percent or $2 billion compared with the first quarter of 2014.
Residential mortgage loans increased 8 percent or $0.4 billion year over year.
Overall loans and leases saw a 10 percent increase from the same quarter the previous year to a total of about $47.8 billion.
“This year will be built on a strong foundation of focused execution of our strategies,” said Steve Steinour, chairman, president and CEO of Huntington.
In the first quarter, Huntington’s acquisition of Michigan-based Macquarie Equipment Finance Inc. closed. The bank announced the acquisition in February. Macquarie was the largest stand-alone, vendor-independent provider of specialized technology. Huntington acquired about $900 million of assets and assumed about $630 million of debt, securitizations and other liabilities, according to the agreement between the two parties.
“The acquisition gives us the ability to drive added growth to our national equipment finance business as well as additional health care and small-business finance capabilities,” Steinour said.