FirstMerit Corp., the Akron-based banking company, said profit for the fourth quarter shot up as its balance sheet greatly expanded with the purchase of Citizens Republic of Michigan and deposits and loan production grew.
Profit for the fourth quarter rose to $57.2 million, up from $38.2 million for the year-ago quarter. Meanwhile, earnings per share declined to 33 cents a share from 35 cents a year ago.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters anticipated, on average, anticipated earnings of 36 cents a share for this year’s fourth quarter. Such estimates usually exclude special items.
Results for the fourth-quarter ended Dec. 31, 2013, included $6 million of pre-tax expenses related to last year’s acquisition of Citizens Republic, headquartered in Flint, Michigan.
FirstMerit [Nasdaq: FMER] roughly doubled its size in April last year with its $1.3 billion acquisition of Citizens, adding branches in Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio.
FirstMerit Chairman, President and CEO Paul Greig, said Tuesday in a prepared statement that the company’s “strong performance in the fourth quarter of 2013 was representative of our entire year’s accomplishments. Through our strategic acquisition of Citizens Republic Bancorp as well as our continued success in our legacy markets, we expanded our balance sheet with robust loan and core deposit growth while maintaining pristine credit metrics.”
The purchase of Citizens Republic was FirstMerit’s first since the bank’s push outside Northeast Ohio with acquisitions in the Chicago market in 2010.
Pre-tax costs of $1 million associated with anticipated branch closures were included in results for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 and are included within non-interest income.
Loans — not including Citizens Republic — grew by $175 million, or 1.24 percent from the prior quarter. Deposits climbed by $230.5 , or 1.38 percent from the third quarter.
Employment decreased to 4,570 compared with the third quarter, when employment, including workers from Citizens Republic, stood at 4,666, according to financial statements released Tuesday.
About 2,000 of the bank’s employees worked in downtown Akron headquarters operations last fall, according to information obtained by the Beacon last year. The company does not regularly reveal the number of employees in any geographic area. That number of 2,000 included workers in the FirstMerit Tower on Main Street; Cascade III, an adjacent building; and an operations center near the Akron Innerbelt.
For all of 2013, profits were $177 million, up from $134 million the prior year.
FirstMerits’s total assets as of Dec. 31 last year were $23.9 billion, a decrease of $225.7 million, or 0.9 percent compared with Sept. 30, 2013, and an increase of $9 billion, or 60.3 percent compared with Dec. 31, 2012, before the purchase of Citizens Republic.
FirstMerit has the largest share of deposits among financial institutions operating in the Akron area. It has grown its share of deposits to 26.1 percent as of June 30 last year, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data. The bank ranked No. 6 for share of deposits in the Cleveland metropolitan area, according to the FDIC.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com.