Amerant Bancorp (NYSE:AMTB) Q4 2022 Earnings Conference Call January 20, 2023 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Jerry Plush - Chairman, Chief Executive Officer

Carlos Iafigliola - Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Laura Rossi - Senior Vice President, Head of Investor Relations

Conference Call Participants

Matt Olney - Stephens

Brady Gailey - KBW

Michael Rose - Raymond James

Feddie Strickland - Janney

Stephen Scouten - Piper Sandler

Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Amerant fourth quarter 2022 earnings conference call.

At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers’ presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, you will need to press star-one-one on your telephone. Please be advised today’s conference is being recorded.

I would now like to hand the conference over to your host today, Laura Rossi, Head of Investor Relations at Amerant. Please go ahead.

Laura Rossi

Thank you Michelle. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us to review Amerant Bancorp’s fourth quarter and full year 2022 results. On today’s call are Jerry Plush, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Carlos Iafigliola, our Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

As we begin, please note the discussions on today’s call contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Exchange Act. In addition, references will also be made to non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the company’s earnings release for a statement regarding forward-looking statements, as well as for information and reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP measures.

I will now turn it over to our Chairman and CEO, Jerry Plush.

Jerry Plush

Thank you Laura. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining today.

I am pleased to be here to report on our performance for the quarter and full year, but before we get into that, I would like to first acknowledge and thank all of my colleagues here at Amerant for their dedication and effort again this quarter. We have a great team and we’re excited about the strong additions to the Amerant family this quarter and throughout the year. They will play an essential role in our growth in 2023 and beyond.

Moving onto the remarks for the quarter, I’m pleased to share that on January 18 of 2023, our board of directors approved a dividend of $0.09 per share payable on February 28 of 2023. The ability to pay dividends along with the ability to repurchase stock are essential parts of effective capital management and value creation for our shareholders. More on this in a few minutes.