The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.
(Questions from industry analysts are provided in full, but answers are omitted - download the transcript to see the full question-and-answer session)
Question: Jared Shaw - Barclays - Analyst
: Well, obviously, the deal has been the biggest news in the space this summer. How have trends been since the announcement? How
is regular growth going in third quarter? Have you seen an impact at all on the pipeline from the announcement?
Question: Jared Shaw - Barclays - Analyst
: What's been the feedback from clients?
Question: Jared Shaw - Barclays - Analyst
: I think Pinnacle has seemed to have created the secret sauce for growth over the past few years by identifying strong urban markets
in the Southeast and then hiring really good people in those markets. And Synovus, you've been doing that more recently as well.
Should we expect the pace of hiring? So you talked about the success of 58 of the 59 at the time of announcement. How should we
expect that pace of hiring to go forward over maybe the next year as you're juggling that close and integration?
Question: Jared Shaw - Barclays - Analyst
: I think just in general, there's some concern in the market that MOEs in the Southeast are tough to pull off. What do you think is
different about this deal, and what are some of the milestones we should expect going forward?
Question: Jared Shaw - Barclays - Analyst
: Great color. Thank you. We have a few questions for the audience, and then we can open it up for questions. But if you can use your
BlackBerry first for these, then we'll switch to the microphone. What's your current position in -- well, we have it as Pinnacle, but we
could say Pinnacle-Synovus shares, long, number one, equal weight, number two, short, number three, not involved, number four.
So 60% not involved, but clearly interested. Number two, which would have the largest impact on improving the relative valuation
of shares of Pinnacle. This is a question we ask everybody, better relative NIM performance; two, above peer loan growth; three,
better expense control; four, credit quality outperformance; five, more active share repurchases; or six, an accretive bank acquisition?
Question: Jared Shaw - Barclays - Analyst
: Yeah. (technical difficulty) 50% loan growth. Number three, what will organic growth be in 2026 at Pinnacle? One, 3% to 5%; two,
5% to 7%; three, 7% to 9%, or four 9%-plus. (technical difficulty) 7% to 9%, almost half.
Then four, assuming deal expectations, the approval time line, cost savings, accretion, systems conversion, et cetera, are met and
are on track at this time next year, how will shares of the pro forma company perform versus the KRE from now until then?
One, underperform by more than 500 basis points; two, perform within plus or minus 500, outperform by 500 to 1500, or outperform
by more than 1500 basis points. (technical difficulty)
So it feels like there's opportunity to outperform if you're able to execute on the targets. And then just in general, what do you think
happens to Category four bank asset level regulation? One, nothing; two, the asset level increases with inflation; three, it moves to
[$250 billion]; or four, there's a complete removal of the asset size test.
(technical difficulty) $250 billion, which has been pretty consistent. So we have some questions I see in the audience. We have a
microphone to use. There's one person here.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you. I mean, great job outlining the differences between your merger and [Truist]. I think you were also very clear about the
comp plan. You did mention your 2 cultures are more alike than different. Can you just give us a bit more detail on both of those
things? Thank you.
Question: Jared Shaw - Barclays - Analyst
: Anyone else? Maybe just at the end, when you look at some of the expense expectations coming out of it was limited expense cuts.
You've talked about making investments to run a larger institution, looking at CAT 4 and LFI. If we do see relief as everyone here
seems to expect, what would that do to the implied expense either savings or opportunity for investment?
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