Mark J. Ruggiero
Thanks, Jeff. I will now take us through the earnings presentation deck that was included in our 8-K filing and is available on our website in today's investor portal. Starting on Slide 3 of the deck, 2025 second quarter GAAP net income was $51.1 million and diluted EPS was $1.20, resulting in a 1.04% return on assets, a 6.68% return on average common equity and a 9.89% return on average tangible common equity. Excluding $2.2 million of merger and acquisition expenses and the related tax impact, the adjusted operating net income for the quarter was $53.5 million or $1.25 diluted EPS, representing a 1.09% return on assets, a 6.99% return on average common equity and a 10.35% return on average tangible common equity. The improved operating results reflect asset repricing benefit driving an improved net interest margin and contained loan loss provision. In addition, tangible book value per share increased by $0.99 during the quarter, reflecting solid earnings retention and a $0.28 benefit from other comprehensive income. Staying on capital, as Jeff highlighted, we recently approved a $150 million share buyback plan. This plan is in place to be opportunistic in buying back stock and will be governed by 3 major tenets. First, the stock price will obviously be a key component in how aggressive we may or may not be in the market. Second, we will balance the timing and the pace of buyback activity while simultaneously working to reduce our CRE concentration to the target level that Jeff just highlighted. And lastly, the pace will also be impacted by ensuring we have adequate cash at the holding company to service our debt requirements. I'll now cover the key highlights of the second quarter results, and then I'll address some updates regarding the July 1 closing of Enterprise Bank. Turning to Slide 4. Core deposit growth remained strong with period-end balances up $218 million or 1.39% for the quarter, while average balances increased $116 million or 0.75%. The mix of deposits has stabilized with noninterest-bearing DDA comprising 28.5% of total deposits at quarter end, while time deposits as a percentage of deposits decreased modestly to 17.1%. With steady emphasis on core relationships within both the consumer and business segments, net core households have increased for the 10th consecutive quarter, which has really served as the primary driver of our differentiated funding base. Moving to Slide 5. Total loans increased modestly in the quarter. And as Jeff just highlighted, our relationship banking strategic focus drove an increase in C&I balances of 3.4% or 13% annualized, attrition in our transactional CRE balances, offset by balanced new originations and steady volume in both our small business and consumer real estate portfolios. As an update on asset quality, we'll move to Slide 6, which reflects a few developments worth highlighting. First, total nonperforming loans decreased significantly from $89.5 million last quarter to $56.2 million at the end of the second quarter or 39 basis points of total loans. In terms of an update on the biggest movers for the quarter, the acquired $54 million relationship that was charged down to $28 million last quarter was fully resolved in late June. The other positive development was the final resolution of a $7 million previously disclosed nonperforming office loan. Regarding the previously disclosed nonperforming syndicated office loan that is located in downtown Boston, the bank group executed a modification during the second quarter, restructuring that debt into multiple notes with a full payment deferral period through July of 2026. As a result of the modification, no additional loss was recognized, and we expect this loan to stay on nonperforming status for the near term. Although we are certainly encouraged by the meaningful reduction in nonperforming loans, we recognize the environment remains uncertain. We acknowledge total criticized and classified loans experienced a bit of an uptick this quarter, but we are confident we can continue to proactively work through these loans as evidenced by the over $100 million reduction since last year levels. As a result of the moving pieces I just discussed, provision for loan loss in the second quarter was $7.2 million, reflecting modest adjustments related to individual credits and overall loan growth. Shifting gears now to the net interest margin. Let's jump to Slide 11, where you can see the reported and core net interest margin was 3.37%, reflecting minimal impact from purchase accounting and other nonrecurring items in the current quarter. The second quarter core net interest margin was higher than our previous guidance as we saw slightly higher asset repricing benefit while also being able to move on some deposit pricing to extract another 2 basis points benefit from reduced deposit costs. In addition, the strong deposit growth allowed for the repayment of FHLB borrowings, further improving the margin while continuing to structure the balance sheet for sustainable strong margin with very little wholesale borrowings. Moving to Slide 12. Noninterest income increased modestly in the second quarter, reflecting solid wealth management income results, increased deposit-related fees and outsized benefit from bank-owned life insurance. In addition, total expenses, when excluding merger and acquisition costs, increased 1.8% when compared to the prior quarter. Some key changes for the quarter include annual salary merit increases and director equity award grants as well as increased check and fraud losses, timing on advertising expenses and legal loan costs. And lastly, the reported tax rate for the quarter was approximately 22.3%. I'll now shift gears and provide some insight into the Enterprise acquisition. Though we are only 18 days out from the closing, we are able to provide some updates regarding a few key deal metrics. First, excluding any fair value adjustments, we acquired approximately $4.1 billion of loan balances and $4.4 billion of deposits. Given the stock price at closing, the book value of the net assets acquired and the yield curve position at the time of closing, we now anticipate the deal to be approximately 8% to 9% dilutive to tangible capital on day 1, inclusive of the anticipated onetime merger costs and the non-PCD loan double count impact. Given that longer-term rates have contracted a bit since the time of announcement, this would suggest slightly lower tangible capital dilution than expected with the trade-off being modestly lower earnings accretion with no material impact on tangible book value earn-back period versus original expectations. In addition, we recognize that the FASB has issued proposed guidance that would effectively eliminate the non-PCD double count. However, it is anticipated that the final guidance will not be promulgated until later in the year. And as such, we expect to close and report our third quarter results with existing PCD, non-PCD treatment. And lastly, with the core conversion scheduled for mid-October, we expect to recognize full cost save synergies during the first quarter of 2026, which we reaffirm to be approximately 30% of the enterprise expense base. In closing out my comments, I'll turn to Slide 16, where we will now focus on next quarter guidance only given all the moving pieces of the recent merger closing. In terms of organic loan growth, we anticipate a low single-digit percentage increase on a combined basis. For organic deposit growth, past experiences suggest we may see some modest level of deposit attrition from the acquired balances. And as such, we are estimating flat to slightly down combined deposit balances. Regarding asset quality, we still do not see any pervasive broad-based issues across segments. And as such, provision will likely continue to be highly driven by developments of individual commercial credits. For noninterest income, we estimate a low single-digit percentage increase off of the combined results. And for noninterest expense, as I just alluded to a little while ago, we will expect to see a flat to low single-digit percentage increase on the INDB stand-alone results, which includes some level of costs associated with our 2026 core system migration. Regarding the enterprise expense base, we should realize some modest level of cost saves in the third quarter. However, we will refine the assumptions over the timing and extent of full cost saves as we work through the second half of the year. Regarding the net interest margin, we provided a revised chart on Slide 17 to show the path of what is expected for continued margin expansion from both the core INDB and Enterprise results, along with the anticipated lift from purchase accounting. And this indicates we would peg the third quarter margin to be in the [ mid -360 ] range. As a reminder, the purchase accounting estimates are based on the preliminary work that has been completed to date as the fair value marks have not been fully finalized at this point. And lastly, in closing out the guidance, the tax rate for the quarter is expected to be in the 23% range. That concludes my comments. And with that, we'll now open it up for questions.