Hope Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOPE) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript January 30, 2024 12:30 PM ET

Company Participants

Angie Yang - Director of IR

Kevin Kim - Chairman, President and CEO

Julianna Balicka - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Nick Moutafakis - KBW

Gary Tenner - D.A. Davidson

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Hope Bancorp 2023 Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Angie Yang, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Angie Yang

Thank you, Danielle. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the Hope Bancorp 2023 fourth quarter investor conference call. As usual, we will be using a slide presentation to accompany our discussion this morning, which is available in the Presentations page of our Investor Relations website.

Beginning on Slide 2, let me begin with a brief statement regarding forward-looking remarks. The call today contains forward-looking projections regarding the future financial performance of the company and future events. These statements may differ materially from actual results due to certain risks and uncertainties. In addition, some of the information referenced on this call today are non-GAAP financial measures. For a more detailed description of the risk factors and a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures, please refer to the company's filings with the SEC, as well as the safe harbor statements in our press release issued this morning. Hope Bancorp assumes no obligation to revise any forward-looking projections that may be made on today's call.

Now we have allotted one hour for this call. Presenting from the management side today will be Kevin Kim, Hope Bancorp's Chairman, President and CEO; Julianna Balicka, our Chief Financial Officer; and Peter Koh, our Chief Operating Officer is also here with us as usual and will be available for the Q&A session.

With that, let me turn the call over to Kevin Kim. Kevin?

Kevin Kim

Thank you, Angie. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today.

Now, let's begin on Slide 3 with a brief overview of the quarter. For the fourth quarter of 2023, we earned net income of $26.5 million or $0.22 per diluted share. Income this quarter included two notable items, the FDIC special assessment of $3.1 million after tax and restructuring charge of $8.7 million after tax. Excluding these notable items, our net income was $38 million, up 26% quarter-over-quarter, and our earnings per share were $0.32, up 28% quarter-over-quarter. A continued focus on expense management and meaningful improvements in our asset quality were important drivers of our net income growth this quarter.