Synovus Financial Corp. (SYU1.DU) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to all of you. I'd like to call the 2021 Annual Shareholders Meeting to order. I'm Kessel Stelling, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer. And I'd like to welcome all of our shareholders to our virtual shareholders' meeting. On our call today, we have our executive management group and bank leadership group, and representatives of KPMG, our independent auditor. Since our last shareholder meeting, we've added 2 new members to our Board of Directors, and I'd like to make a special introduction of both of these gentlemen today. Pedro Cherry is the President and CEO of Atlanta Gas Light and Chattanooga Gas, 2 subsidiaries of the Southern Company. Pedro joined the Board in September and is already proving to be a valuable resource to our Board and to our executive management team. In addition, as part of our announced executive transition plan, Kevin Blair joined the Board in December. Kevin will become CEO effective tomorrow, and I'll talk more about that later. At this time, I'd like to introduce our Corporate Secretary, Mary Maurice Young. Mary Maurice will be reporting on the business items of the meeting.

Thanks, Kessel. Before we begin the business of the meeting, I would like to review a few housekeeping items. On our virtual meeting portal, you should see the agenda for the meeting and an explanation of our rules of conduct and meeting procedures, including procedures for shareholder questions. As you can see from the rules of conduct, questions related to the proposals being voted on today will be addressed after all the proposals are introduced. We will have a separate general question-and-answer session that will follow adjournment of the business meeting. This is a time for shareholders to ask questions pertaining to the general business matters of Synovus. If you have a question related to a matter of individual concern, we are happy to answer that at a later time with you. Please see the rules of conduct for the contact information of our Investor Relations group. Only validated shareholders may ask questions. Out of consideration for others, please limit yourself to one question. The Board has appointed Jill Hurley to act as Inspector of Elections for the meeting. Ms. Hurley is present today and has taken the oath of office, which will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. We have a list of the company's shareholders of record as of February 18, 2021, the record date for this meeting, available for inspection during the meeting. The minutes of the 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders are also available for inspection during the meeting. Both the shareholder list and these minutes may be found via a link on the web portal. The notice of the meeting and the notice of Internet availability of proxy materials were mailed by Broadridge, the company's tabulation agent, beginning on March 10, 2021, to all shareholders of record as of February 18. As such, this meeting is being held pursuant to proper notice. An affidavit from Broadridge as to the mailing of the notice to all record shareholders of the company will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. The affidavit is available for inspection by any shareholder. Proxies representing over 90% of the votes entitled to be cast by the holders of the outstanding shares of Synovus common stock are present at the meeting. As such, the Inspector of Elections has confirmed that a quorum is represented, and the meeting is duly constituted and should proceed. I now declare the polls open. We have 6 proposals to vote on this morning: first, to elect as directors the 13 nominees named in the proxy statement; second, to approve the Synovus 2021 Employee Stock Purchase Plan; third, to approve the Synovus 2021 Director Stock Purchase Plan; fourth, to approve the Synovus 2021 Omnibus Plan; fifth, to approve an advisory vote on the compensation of Synovus' named executive officers, as determined by the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors; and lastly, to ratify the appointment of KPMG as the company's independent auditor for the year 2021. The Board unanimously recommends that shareholders vote for each of the foregoing proposals. Under our bylaws, the deadline for submitting a nominee for director or any other shareholder proposal has passed, and no other nominations for director or shareholder proposals were submitted. Therefore, these 6 items of business are the only matters we will consider at this meeting. We will now address any questions specifically related to the foregoing proposals. If you have a question related to a proposal, you may submit it at this time by clicking the Q&A button at the bottom of your screen, followed by typing your question into the text box. Are there any questions related to these 6 proposals? Seeing no questions on the proposals, we will now proceed with the voting. Shareholders who have already voted do not need to vote at this time unless they want to change their vote. If you have not already voted and would like to vote now, please do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions there. [Voting]

The polls are now closed to voting. At this point, the preliminary vote has been verified and tabulated, and I will report the preliminary results of the 6 matters voted upon at the meeting. Each of the 13 nominees for director has received votes cast for election ranging from approximately 97% to over 99%. Since each of the nominees has received more votes cast for than against, each of the nominees is hereby elected to serve until the next Annual Shareholders Meeting and until his or her successor is elected and qualified. The Synovus 2021 Employee Stock Purchase Plan has been approved by over 99% of the votes cast. This proposal requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the votes cast, and as such, it is hereby approved. The Synovus 2021 Director Stock Purchase Plan has been approved by approximately 99% of the votes cast. This proposal requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the votes cast, and as such, it is hereby approved. The Synovus 2021 Omnibus Plan has been approved by approximately 97% of the votes cast. This proposal requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the votes cast, and as such, it is hereby approved. The advisory vote on the compensation of Synovus' named executive officers, as determined by the Compensation Committee, has been approved by approximately 98% of the votes cast. This proposal requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the votes cast, and as such, it is hereby approved. The appointment of KPMG as Synovus' independent auditor for 2021 has been ratified by the shareholders by approximately 98% of the votes cast. Since this proposal requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the votes cast, the proposal to ratify KPMG as Synovus' independent auditor for the year 2021 has been approved. These preliminary voting results are subject to final tabulation and to verification by the inspection of -- Inspector of Election. The inspector will make and certify to a final report of the vote. The vote will become part of the record of this meeting. We will report the voting results in a current report on Form 8-K no later than April 27, 2021. This concludes the formal business of the meeting, and today's shareholder meeting is now adjourned. Before I turn the meeting back over to Kessel, I would like to remind you that Kessel and Kevin will be making forward-looking statements about the future of Synovus. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks, uncertainties and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ materially. We will also reference non-GAAP financial measures related to the company's performance. Please refer to our website for more information and for a reconciliation of these measures. Kessel?

Well, thank you, Mary Maurice. It's both a strange and exciting day to be participating in my final official duty as CEO of Synovus. I'll have some parting thoughts in a moment, but my role today is to provide a summary of our company's performance in 2020. And then Kevin will provide a summary of our first quarter earnings and a preview of his priorities as the next leader of Synovus. Then I'll return to close the meeting. Our results in 2020 reflected the strength of our operating model and our balance sheet, and of course, the rapidly changing economic environment, including a significant reduction in interest rates. Total revenues for the year were $2 billion, including net interest income of $1.5 billion and noninterest revenue of $507 million. Net income available to common shareholders was $341 million and diluted earnings per share were $2.30 for the year. Total deposits were $46.7 billion at year-end 2020 and total loans were $38.3 billion. Despite the rapid and deep contraction in the economy, we maintained solid credit quality during the year. Nonperforming loans, nonperforming assets and past dues remained stable throughout the year, reflecting sustained discipline in underwriting and monitoring. Although the numbers speak to the overall strength and resilience of our business, the actions we took in response to COVID-19 truly demonstrated our ability to execute, manage and fulfill our purpose. From the start of the pandemic, we focused on ensuring the safety and well-being of team members, customers and communities. Within days of the national emergency declaration on March 13, the majority of our team members had transitioned to full-time work from home or remote work status and all branches converted to drive-thru and appointment-only. We provided bonus payments to team members required to work on site and offered additional paid time off to team members who were sick, quarantining or contending with childcare or other COVID-19-related family hardships. For virus impacted customers, we waived NSF, monthly and other charges, and offered a comprehensive payment deferral program, among other measures. Our customer efforts were especially effective around the Paycheck Protection Program. Following the launch of the P3 program on April 3, hundreds of team members worked around the clock, communicating with customers early and often to ensure timely documentation, processing, underwriting and funding of applications, approximately 19,000 loans, totaling nearly $2.9 billion. The dedication of the entire team was a genuine demonstration of our company's relationship-based approach to banking and our commitment to communities and to customers. In our communities, team members provided approximately 24,000 volunteer service hours. And we delivered thousands of meals, masks and supplies to frontline health care providers and first-responders during the pandemic. We also made financial donations to community agencies and health systems throughout our footprint and provided matching dollars for team member fundraising efforts. Our ongoing commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment and ensuring our workforce reflects the communities and customers we serve took on even greater urgency as racial and social unrest during the summer eliminated persistent gaps in equity across our nation. We doubled down on efforts and investments in promoting equality and unity inside and outside our organization, creating a senior level African-American CEO Advisory Council, amplifying employee resource group communities, strengthening our hiring policies and procedures, improving talent development programs and increasing leadership accountability. We also awarded team members a day of purpose to encourage meaningful action and community service in recognition of [ dream team ]. And we were grateful to partner with the United Negro College Fund to establish a $1 million scholarship endowment that will help close education gaps and promote economic equality. Our scholarship program is named in honor of former colleague and longtime Georgia state representative, Calvin Smyre, and is available for African-American students to attend historically black colleges and universities and other institutions of higher education throughout our 5-state footprint. Throughout 2020, we continue to launch new initiatives, develop and build new lines of business and invest in our future. In the first quarter, we announced Synovus Forward, an ambitious program to deliver income and efficiency growth through multiple revenue and expense initiatives. The first round of Synovus Forward projects is expected to deliver $100 million in pretax run rate benefits by the end of 2021, and we expect an additional $75 million by year-end 2022. With an awareness of the rising demand for lower-cost quality housing in many of our communities, we welcome the new affordable housing team. And in its first year, the new team produced more than $100 million in project loans and a commensurate amount of tax credit equity. In March of last year, days after team members began working from home, we delivered a major upgrade to our mobile and online banking portal, with additional features following throughout the year. Our mortgage business had its best year ever, with consecutive quarters of record production. And we had solid fee income growth from our fiduciary, and asset management, brokerage and insurance businesses, with assets under management increasing $3.2 billion from 2019. We also saw strong results from recent investments in new and expanded business segments, including our structured lending team, which launched in the third quarter of 2019 and generated more than $400 million in loan growth in 2020, and our treasury and payment services team, which has established a very strong competitive foundation for accelerated growth. Throughout the year, we continue to take important steps to strengthen our business and prepare for the future. We rationalized and consolidated our branch network, while also opening 2 new retail banking centers in metro Atlanta and 2 in Florida. We introduced 4 new online account origination products, including free consumer checking. We strengthened our offering in foreign exchange, trade finance and merchant services, and deepened our agribusiness focus with a new agriculture and timber team. And we continue to make investments in talent and solutions to support growth and to enhance technology that will improve the customer experience. We completed the year as a stronger, more competitive bank, well positioned for the return of economic growth, and also capable of anticipating and managing rapidly changing conditions. 2020 demonstrated that Synovus is better equipped than ever to fulfill our purpose. So that puts a bow on a challenging yet remarkable year for our team and for our company, considering the environment in which we operated. And I'm equally pleased with how our team has entered 2021, still facing uncertainty, but already showing signs of resiliency and determination to crisply execute on our solid growth plan. I'll now turn the meeting over to Kevin to summarize our first quarter results and share a few thoughts about his priorities as our next CEO. Then I'll return for some final thoughts. Kevin?

Thank you, Kessel. We announced our first quarter earnings yesterday, and we're off to a strong start in 2021 as we are beginning to more visibly see the light at the end of the tunnel from the COVID-19 Pandemic. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were $1.21 compared to $1.08 last quarter and $0.21 a year ago. Total adjusted revenue of $488 million, adjusted expenses of $267 million and a $19 million reversal of provision for credit losses led to strong earnings that further increased capital levels. Core transaction deposits grew $2 billion, helping to reduce the total cost of deposits by 6 basis points to 22 basis points overall. Commercial loans, excluding those under the Paycheck Protection Program, increased $212 million or 1% from the end of the year. Through mid-April, we have processed 10,000 new Phase 2 applications for $1.1 billion and have funded approximately $950 million for our customers. Net charge-offs remain low at 21 basis points. NPAs, NPLs and past due ratios all remain near historical lows, as we remain confident in the credit performance of our portfolio. For more than 130 years, Synovus' purpose-driven relationship banking approach has served as a foundation for meeting the needs of customers and building trust-based partnerships. Our culture of putting customers first continue to serve as a key point of differentiation, as our operating and financial results demonstrated this past year. With persistently low interest rates, increasing competition, rapidly changing technology and accelerating levels of commoditization, our approach will endure as Synovus' competitive advantage. We will not rest on our laurels, however, as we continue to build on this foundation and anticipate, adjust and adapt to changes in our industry in 2021 and the years ahead. We will achieve this by: first, improving the customer experience and making it easier to do business with us; #2, providing more proactive, impactful guidance and advice to our customers to support their financial objectives and goals; and third, fully leveraging data, technology and innovation to empower our team members to expand banking capabilities and functionality for our customers. As customer preferences continue to evolve, what it means to be a relationship bank will also change. Understanding customers at a deeper level will require more opportunities and add value to those relationships and will build a greater level of trust and loyalty, leading to new sources of business from existing customers as well as new referrals. The investments we have made in our digital capabilities have driven improvements in enrollment, utilization and overall customer experience, while establishing scalable and expandable platforms that will allow for future enhancements. Moving forward, we have prioritized resources, capital expenditures and business activities to ensure our ability to invest prudently in relationship-enhancing growth and efficiency initiatives throughout 2021 and beyond. Kessel referenced Synovus Forward, a program we developed to serve as a comprehensive road map for our strategic and financial path, setting our vision and agenda for short and long-term transformational imperatives. Despite ongoing uncertainties from the pandemic, 2021 will be our next step forward in achieving these goals. Every team member at Synovus either supports a customer directly or supports someone who does. Every day, at every level of the organization, we do our best to advise and guide our customers in planning and managing their finances to ensure they achieve their financial goals and objectives. I want to close my remarks today by thanking Kessel for his steady leadership he's provided Synovus as our CEO over the last 10-plus years, and for the encouragement and counsel, better confidence and support, and to all of our 5,200-plus team members for their commitment to customers, the communities we serve and each other. Because of all of your efforts, we are building on a position of strength, and I couldn't be more excited to lead this company forward through the next era of growth, service and value creation. And now before I turn it back over to Kessel to close this out, let me first pause to see if there are any questions from our shareholders at this time. Seeing none, let me now turn it over to Kessel.

Well, thank you, Kevin. This is an important day and an important week for Synovus. The significance though really isn't about what's ending, but what's continuing. For one thing, I'll still be very engaged as Executive Chairman, assisting Kevin and the team any way possible to make this company stronger and better. Much more important, however, is our relationship-based culture, which creates value by serving customers and communities and this team, 5,200 strong, talented, committed, determined, tested, proven. I'm confident in Kevin's readiness to step into this role, and I'm confident he has the very best team backing him up. We've been through a lot. And I couldn't be more grateful for your loyalty and your support, and for the honor and privilege of serving as CEO of this great company and leading this great team for these last 11 years. Thank you all very much, and have a great rest of the day.

The 2021 Annual Meeting for Synovus has now come to an end. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.