Below is transcript of the Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY)’s Fourth Quarter 2014 Earnings Call, held on
January 21, 2014 at 6:00 p.m. ET.
Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) is a holding company of Cathay Bank, a California state-chartered commercial bank (the Bank), six limited partnerships investing in affordable housing investments in which the Bank is the sole limited partner, and GBC Venture Capital, Inc.
Company Executives:
Monica Chen, Investor Relations Officer
Dunson K. Cheng, Chairman, President and CEO, Cathay General Bancorp
Heng W. Chen, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer, Cathay General Bancorp
Analysts:
Julianna Balicka, KBW
Aaron Deer, Sandler O’Neill & Partners
Joe Morford, RBC Capital Markets
Gary Tenner, D.A. Davidson
Lana Chan, BMO Capital Markets
Matthew Clark, Sterne Agee
Operator
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Cathay General Bancorp Fourth Quarter 2014 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Chris and I will be your conference moderator for today. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. Today’s call is being recorded and will be available for replay at www.cathaygeneralbancorp.com. And now, I would like to turn the call over to Monica Chen, Investor Relations for Cathay General Bancorp. Ma’am, you may proceed.
Monica Chen, Investor Relations Officer
Thank you Chris, and good afternoon. Here to discuss the financial results today are Mr. Dunson Cheng, our Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer and Mr. Heng Chen, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, we wish to remind you that the speakers of this call may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the applicable provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 concerning future results and events, and these statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties are further described in the company’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013, at Item 1A in particular, and in other reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. As such, we caution you not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date of this presentation. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or to publicly announce any revision of any forward-looking statements to reflect future developments or events, except as required by law.
We would also like to inform you that Cathay will be filing a Form S-4 registration statement that will include perspectives of Cathay in the Proxy Statement of Asia Bancshares regarding the merger we announced this morning. You are urged to read this document when it becomes available, because it will contain important information about the merger. In addition, Cathay and Asia Bancshares, and their directors and officers may be deemed to be participating in the solicitation of practice in favor of the proposed merger. You can find information about Cathay directors and executive officers in our Proxy Statement filed with the SEC. You may obtain a copy of these documents when they become available through the SEC’s website, Cathay’s website, or by requesting a copy from our Investor Relations Department. This afternoon, Cathay General Bancorp issued an earnings release outlining its fourth quarter 2014 results. To obtain a copy, please visit our website at www.cathaygeneralbancorp.com. After comments by management today, we will open up this call for questions. I will now turn the call over to our Chairman of the Board, President and CEO, Mr. Dunson Cheng.
