Colony Bankcorp, Inc. today reported net income of $4.0 million, or $0.42 per diluted share, for the quarter ended June 30, 2021, compared with $2.2 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, for the quarter ended June 30, 2020. The Company reported operating net income of $4.6 million, or $0.49 per diluted share, for the quarter ended June 30, 2021, compared with $2.4 million, or $0.25 per diluted share for the same period in 2020. Operating net income for June 30, 2021 and 2020 excludes pre-tax acquisition related expenses, and the net income tax benefit for these adjustments.

For the six months ended June 30, 2021, the Company reported net income of $8.9 million, or $0.94 per diluted share, compared to $3.5 million, or $0.40 per diluted share, for the same period in 2020. The Company reported operating net income of $9.7 million, or $1.02 adjusted earnings per diluted share, for the six months ended June 30, 2021, compared to $4.2 million, or $0.44 adjusted earnings per diluted share, for the same period in 2020.

Second Quarter 2021 Financial Highlights:

• Net income was $4.0 million, or $0.42 per diluted share compared to $2.2 million, or $0.23 per diluted share for the second quarter of 2020.

• Operating net income of $4.6 million, or $0.49 per diluted share, (see Non-GAAP reconciliation).

• No provision for loan losses was recorded in second quarter, a decrease of $500,000, or 100%, compared to the first quarter of 2021.

• Mortgage production was $151.4 million, with $37.7 million in refinances, $103.4 million in purchases, and $10.3 million in construction related loans.

• Small Business Specialty Lending (“SBSL”) closed $15.1 million in SBA loans and sold $9.3 million in SBA loans.

The Company also announced that on July 22, 2021, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.1025 per share, to be paid on its common stock on August 17, 2021, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on August 3, 2021. Outstanding shares as of July 1, 2021 were 9,686,383.

Commenting on the announcement, Heath Fountain, President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “As we moved to a more open economy from the global pandemic, we delivered strong growth in earnings for the second quarter of 2021 compared to the same period last year. Diluted earnings per share increased 81% for the second quarter year over year to $0.42 per diluted share. Our team continued to do a great job serving clients as shown by increased levels of our non-interest income for the period mentioned. Mortgage fee income increased 65% year over year as a result of historically low interest rates and consumer demand, a tribute also to our strategic vision to diversify our revenues. Diluted earnings per share decreased on a sequential quarter basis primarily due to acquisition costs related to our proposed acquisitions of SouthCrest Financial Group, Inc. (PK: SCSG) (“SouthCrest”) and The Barnes Agency (“Barnes”), both with anticipated closings on or before August 1, 2021. Adjusted earnings also increased for the year over year period to $0.49 from $0.25, and decreased 8% from the prior quarter primarily due to increased operating expenses.

“Building a world class organization and recruiting the best of people, we have been very busy at Colony these last several months. The recently announced acquisition of SouthCrest allows us to optimize our balance sheet, further invest in Colony and become a more efficient organization due to the synergies we will experience. In furtherance of our strategic plan, we believe our newly formed Colony Insurance subsidiary operating as an Allstate agency, diversifies our revenue stream by increasing non interest income as well as cross-selling of product lines. Furthermore, I am pleased that R. Dallis ‘D’ Copeland, Jr., agreed to join our organization as Special Advisor. D has over 27 years of banking experience at a $45 billion balance sheet financial institution in all areas including commercial real estate, corporate and retail banking, private wealth, credit card, treasury management and strategy. We anticipate leveraging his many skills to continue to build our organization.

“Our balance sheet remains solid with strong credit metrics, as evidenced by no provision for loan losses as well as net recoveries in our loan portfolio for the period ended June 30, 2021. We experienced solid core loan growth while total deposits increased to $1.5 billion, a record for the company. Average interest-bearing deposits increased $77.0 million year over year with most of the increase in lower-yielding demand and savings accounts. Total assets were fairly flat from last year with the prior year period having strong demand for Paycheck Protection Program (‘PPP’) loans.

“Net interest income increased 11% year-over-year primarily due to loan fee income recognized on PPP loans forgiven, as well as lower costs of interest bearing liabilities. Our cost related to demand and savings deposits rate was down 15 basis points to 0.07% and total average deposits cost this quarter decreased 33 basis points to 0.20% from the same period last year. The team has done a great job of attracting more deposits while maintaining a strong cost discipline. Moreover, while many banks are reporting decreases in their net interest margin, I am pleased to report our net interest margin increased to 3.68% from 3.46% year over year attributable to lower costs of interest bearing liabilities. While we have experienced inflation across many sectors of the economy, the Federal Reserve Board has so far not increased interest rates and we continue to closely monitor the situation.

“Noninterest income saw very strong growth, increasing 60% year over year, with mortgage fee income increasing to $3.0 million in the current quarter compared to $1.8 million in the second quarter of 2020. Service charges on deposits had a strong quarter increasing 16% over the same period last year. The increase in noninterest income was offset by increases in noninterest expense, such as salaries and employee benefits, information technology expenses as well as elevated acquisition related expenses.

“Our allowance for loan and lease losses now represents 1.26% of total loans outstanding, an increase from 0.92% in the year-earlier quarter and 1.19% on a sequential-quarter basis. Total nonperforming assets decreased to 0.54% of total assets from 0.75% in the year-earlier quarter and from 0.62% on a sequential-quarter basis.

“Average interest earning assets of $1.7 billion increased $80.0 million, or 5%, while total assets remained stable at $1.8 billion. Total loans, including acquisition activity and loans from the Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program (‘PPP’), decreased 8% year-over-year, while organic loan growth increased 6%.

In closing, Fountain added, “Our management team and Board are always focused on investing, innovating and making strategic decisions to better serve our customers, employees and communities. The acquisitions of SouthCrest and The Barnes Agency will make us the number one community bank in Georgia as well as expand our reach into consumer insurance. We welcome new customers by offering a wide range of financial products and services as well as demonstrating new product lines to our existing customers. All of us at Colony look forward to integrating the SouthCrest and Barnes acquisitions, while continuing to reward our shareholders.”

Balance Sheet

• Total assets totaled $1.8 billion at June 30, 2021, a decrease of $22.1 million, or 1.2%, compared to the same period in 2020. The decrease was primarily related to PPP loans being forgiven beginning in the third quarter of 2020.

• Interest-bearing deposits in banks and federal funds sold at June 30, 2021, totaled $129.4 million, a decrease of $44.4 million, or 25.5% compared to the same period in 2020. The decrease is primarily attributable to the deployment of funds that came from PPP loans and the repayment of Paycheck Protection Program Liquidity Facility (“PPLF”).

• Total loans, including loans held for sale, totaled $1.05 billion at June 30, 2021, a decrease of $77.0 million, or 6.81% from the same period in 2020. Legacy loan growth was up $50.3 million or 5.9% compared to the same period in 2020.

• Deposits totaled $1.54 billion at June 30, 2021, an increase of $120.5 million, or 8.5%, compared to the same period in 2020. The increase in deposits was primarily in noninterest-bearing and interest bearing demand deposits as a result of the PPP loan activity during 2020 and 2021.

• Total borrowings at June 30, 2021, totaled $59.8 million, a decrease of $149.5 million, or 71.4%, compared to the same period in 2020. At June 30, 2021, the PPPLF was completely paid off in the second quarter of 2021.

Capital

• Colony continues to maintain a strong capital position, with ratios that exceed regulatory minimums required to be classified as “well-capitalized.”

• Preliminary tier one leverage ratio, tier one capital ratio, total risk-based capital ratio and common equity tier one capital ratio were 8.45%, 13.41%, 14.56%, and 11.31%, respectively at June 30, 2021.

Second Quarter Results of Operations

• Net interest income on a tax-equivalent basis for the second quarter 2021 totaled $15.2 million, compared to $13.6 million for the second quarter 2020. The increase during the quarter is primarily attributable to loan fee income recognized on PPP loans forgiven and a decrease in the cost of interest-bearing liabilities.

• Net interest margin was up 18 basis points over the sequential quarter primarily driven by an increase in deferred fee income recognized on PPP loans partially offset by reductions in loan rates driven by Federal Reserve interest rate decreases during 2020. During the quarter ended June 30, 2021, PPP loans totaling approximately $44.6 million were forgiven through the SBA.

• Noninterest income totaled $7.8 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2021, an increase of $2.9 million, or 60.05%, compared to the same period in 2020. The increase was primarily attributable to growth in mortgage production income as a result of increased loan demand resulting from a historically low interest rate environment.

• Noninterest expense totaled $17.5 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2021, compared to $13.4 million for the same period in 2020. The increase in noninterest expense primarily resulted from a $2.4 million increase in salary expense largely related to the increase in mortgage and SBSL loan production.

Asset Quality

• Nonperforming assets totaled $9.5 million and $11.2 million at June 30, 2021 and March 31, 2021, respectively.

• OREO and repossessed assets totaled $299,000 at June 30, 2021, a decrease of $248,000, or 45% compared to March 31, 2021.

• Net loan recoveries were $244,000, or (0.09%) of average loans for the second quarter of 2021, compared to net charge-offs of $66,000 in the first quarter of 2021.

• The loan loss reserve was $12.9 million, or 1.26% of total loans, at June 30, 2021, compared to $12.7 million, or 1.14% of total loans, at March 31, 2021.

Asset quality remains strong as indicated by the overall improvement in asset quality ratios as of the second quarter 2021 on a year-over-year comparison along with a decrease in nonperforming assets. .