Laurentian Bank of Canada Q4 2018 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Sohrab Movahedi - BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - Analyst : A couple of questions. Maybe, Frantois, I could start off with you. I'm just a little bit confused with the medium-term objectives and the 2021 time line. Are you -- like, are you saying that, for example, the 5% to 10% annual EPS growth starting from 2021, you have a medium-term objective of 5% to 10%? Is that how I should be thinking about it?

Question: Sohrab Movahedi - BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - Analyst : Okay. So Frantois, just to clarify, I guess, what you -- just to interpret the 2021 date you have out there, I guess, you're saying these will be the performance targets until 2021 and then maybe you'll revisit them then. Is that maybe the fair way to think about it?

Question: Sohrab Movahedi - BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - Analyst : Okay. Can I just ask very quickly on the one-off syndicated commercial credit that you called out? What was the -- which geography was that in?

Question: Sohrab Movahedi - BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - Analyst : And Liam, would you have a kind of ballpark indication of what percentage of your commercial loan book would be in syndicated-type credits?

Question: Sohrab Movahedi - BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - Analyst : And StTphane, is like a $27 million size at the upper end, at the lower end or about an average for that size, for your syndicated portfolio?

Question: Gabriel Dechaine - National Bank Financial, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : I got a couple quick ones here, running out of time. The $100 million commercial portfolio sale, you think that's going to hit in Q1?

Question: Gabriel Dechaine - National Bank Financial, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : Okay. You mentioned the $27 million commercial loan that went -- that became impaired this quarter and you took a provision. What is your single-name limit anyhow? without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 05, 2018 / 4:00PM, LB.TO - Q4 2018 Laurentian Bank of Canada Earnings Call

Question: Gabriel Dechaine - National Bank Financial, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : Okay. And the syndicate, was that other banks that I would know in that syndicate or other...

Question: Gabriel Dechaine - National Bank Financial, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : All right. Then, I guess, the shift to the commercial growth emphasis now. If I look -- let's talk about the drivers here. I guess, if I look at your growth loans and the growth that we had during the year, pretty much entirely -- and if I exclude the portfolio sales, it looks like it was all driven by an inventory finance, so Northpoint. Everything else was kind of flat or down quite substantially. What -- that double-digit growth that you want to get next year, where is that coming from? Is it still going to be Northpoint driving the growth? What Canadian categories could be maybe reversing what's been a negative trend?

Question: Gabriel Dechaine - National Bank Financial, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : What are the concentration limits by industry here? So if I look at this picture and I said, well, you gained -- the inventory finance picked up 600 basis points of the total percentage of your commercial book, like, how big do you want that to get? How are you managing that growth, the balance of the growth and the risk management aspects of it? Because if we're seeing growth driven by 1 or 2 categories, it can be worrisome potentially?