Horizon Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBNC) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Nathan Race: Okay, great. And then just one last one from me, just on the kind of reserve outlook from here. Obviously credit metrics continue to improve generally in the quarter. How do you guys kind of think about where you can expect the reserves to kind of settle out maybe as percentage of loans or on absolute dollar basis as 2023 progresses and kind of absent any meaningful seasonal adjustments relative to the two factors?

Lynn Kerber: Good morning, Nathan. This is Lynn Kerber. How are you?

Nathan Race: Hi, Lynn. Good.

Lynn Kerber: Hi. So as far as the allowance go, we continue to work within our model. And as you know, there’s different components to that and drivers. We are seeing some change in mix as far as outlook for possible recession. So you see some increase related to some of the econometrics. And as Thomas mentioned earlier, just overall consumer area and watchful in that. Meanwhile, we’ve seen some reduction in some of the commercial sectors that we had heavier allocations on, because they’ve been performing really well. And so, personally, I think the outlook is pretty stable. But some of that’s going to depend on the economic conditions, of course.

Nathan Race: And is that stable outlook percent, the economic conditions on an absolute dollar basis on the reserve or as a percentage of loans?

Lynn Kerber: I would say percentage of loans.

Nathan Race: Okay, great. Thanks again.

Operator: And our next question today comes from Damon DelMonte with KBW. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Participant: Hello everybody. This is (ph) filling in for Damon DelMonte. Congrats to Craig and Tom. Most of my questions have been asked and answered, but just as a follow-up to Nate’s questions on credit. Could you provide a little color on your office segment and what types of exposures do you have there?

Lynn Kerber: Yes. Thank you. We have — let me just turn to that page. We have both medical and general office exposure just for some context though. I know that there’s been a lot of focus on office exposure and a lot of the metropolitan areas. And Horizon, as you know, our primary markets are considered midsize cities. So Grand Rapids, , Indianapolis. And those have all been performing very well for us. So I would say, overall, there’s really been no deterioration in credit metrics. Lease rates have been maintained. And we traditionally have done business with very strong sponsors and some conservative loan to values in that space. So it’s been performing pretty well for us. If you turn to page 35, we’ve got our office metrics there. As of December 31, 2022, we had $164 million and it was 6.6% of our commercial portfolio, 3.9% of the total bank portfolio, so not a significant exposure.

Unidentified Participant: Great. Thank you very much. I’ll step back.

Operator: Our next question comes from Brian Martin with Janney Montgomery. Please go ahead.

Brian Martin: Hey, good morning guys.

Craig Dwight: Good morning, Brian.

Thomas Prame: Good morning.

Brian Martin: Just a — I guess, want to touch on the expense side of things, maybe if I missed it. Just kind of your thoughts about how to think about expense? I know you guys have talked and met your goal on the expense assets. Just thinking about that as you go into 2023, if there’s a new target on that if that’s kind of how you’re still thinking about things or any outlook you can provide on just kind of your expense guide?