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Sterling Bancorp, Inc. (STL)
Q4Â 2018 Earnings Conference Call
Jan. 24, 2019, 10:30 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
See all our earnings call transcripts.
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good day, everyone. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Sterling Bancorp Fourth Quarter 2018 Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded.
At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Jack Kopnisky, President and CEO of Sterling Bancorp. Please go ahead, sir.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us to present our results for the fourth quarter and year-end 2018. Joining me on the call is Luis Massiani, our Chief Financial Officer. We have a detailed -- we have a presentation on our website, which along with our press release provides detailed information on our quarter and annual results.
During this call, we will highlight the strong fourth quarter and 2018 results for the company, review the previously announced sale of residential fixed rate mortgages, describe our purchase of $504 million in asset-based lending and equipment finance loans from Woodforest National Bank, update you on our common share repurchase progress. And finally, highlight our anticipated outlook for 2019.
First, on an operating basis, we finished 2018 in a strong position. Adjusted net income available to common stockholders for the quarter was $116.5 million and for the year was $450 million, representing increases over prior periods of 34% and 103%, respectively. Adjusted earnings per share for the fourth quarter was $0.52 and for the year $2, representing increases of 33% and 43% over the same periods last year.
Operating metrics continue to be at or above our targets for the fourth quarter. Adjusted return on average assets was 158 basis points. Adjusted return on average tangible common equity was 18.17%, and our efficiency ratio was 38%. Positive operating leverage continued to increase with adjusted total revenues increasing by $9.1 million and adjusted total expenses decreasing by $5.5 million quarter-over-quarter.
In 2018, we continued to evolve the balance sheet to maximize returns and control risks. For the fourth quarter, commercial loan balances increased at an annualized rate of approximately 10.4%. Commercial loan balances for the year increased 11%.
We improved our mix in total loans with targeted double digit increases in traditional C&I, factoring, equipment finance, public sector and CRE loans and reduced balances in residential mortgage, broker-originated multi-family loans and acquisition development and construction loan lending. Commercial loan yields increased 11 basis points and overall loan yields increased by 6 basis points.
During the quarter, we moved $1.6 billion of fixed rate residential loans into loans held for sale. Average deposits for the quarter grew by $242 million. Overall, average deposit balances grew 4.2% on an annual basis, with targeted business demand deposits growing 12%.
We continue to have a favorable mix of deposits with 40% demand deposits, 11% savings, 37% MMDA and 12% certificates of deposits at a cost of 77 basis points. The deposit beta over the past year has been 27%. With the pending sale of residential mortgages, the loan-to-deposit ratio is 90.6%. From a balance sheet perspective, you can expect us to continue to transition lower-yielding residential mortgages and broker-originated multifamily loans and replacing them with better priced relationship-oriented C&I and CRE loans. The loans will be funded by core deposits that enable us to maintain a loan-to-deposit ratio of less than 95%.
From an income perspective, the core net interest margin of 315 basis points and overall margin of 353 basis points was stable relative to last quarter. The change in mix of balance sheet will improve core net interest margins in the future.
Fee income of $27.3 million for the quarter improved by 13% over the linked quarter, driven by strong swap, factoring loan fees and payroll finance fee income. Expenses declined from the previous quarter by $2 million, as we continue to benefit from the integration of Astoria. We expect 2019 expenses to be lower than overall 2018 expenses. Given the concern in the banking market overall, regarding the credit cycle, we included an additional slide in the deck regarding our loan portfolio credit quality.
A special note on page eight is the overall loan to value ratios on our commercial real estate portfolio of 47% and debt service coverage ratios of 1.64 times. Additionally, in our C&I portfolio, we provide secured facilities with traditionally proven advanced rates against qualified receivables, inventory and other assets.
We feel very comfortable with the level of advance rates and collateral levels in our various portfolios. We continue to generate and maintain strong levels of capital. We generate approximately $100 million of excess capital each quarter and maintain tangible common equity to tangible assets in excess of 8.25%.
Now let's discuss a series of near-term tactics we've announced to better position our balance sheet and improve returns. In December, we announced the sale of approximately $1.6 billion of fixed rate residential mortgage loans acquired in the Astoria merger. The potential benefits of the sale allow us to exit low-yielding, non-strategic loans and notably replace these loans with relationship-oriented higher yielding business.
We can reduce interest rate risk, improve our core net interest margin, reduce funding pressure on deposit rates and increase tangible capital ratios as a result of those actions. We expect the sale to close in the first quarter of 2019.
Yesterday, we announced the purchase of a $504 million asset-based lending and equipment finance loan portfolio from Woodforest National Bank. We have reviewed many portfolio purchases over the past year and are most comfortable in the structure, pricing and quality of this portfolio. In due diligence, we essentially underwrote each of the more than 100 loans to be acquired and found the loans to match our existing ABL and equipment finance portfolio structures.
The average yield of the portfolio is 5.5%. The purchase, which also includes the retention of several commercial bankers and business development officers is expected to close in the first quarter of 2019 and will be a cash transaction.
Lastly, in December 2018, our Board authorized an increase to our share buyback program to a total of 20 million shares. Through the end of December 2018, we have repurchased 9.1 million shares at a weighted average price of $17.54 per share with a total consideration of $159.9 million. We will continue to execute on our approved share repurchase program, along with opportunities to grow organically or fund portfolio acquisitions.
In summary, we are very confident in our model and our ability to meet and exceed our growth and return targets in the future. 2018 was a strong year in a challenging rate and competitive environment. In 2019 and beyond, we expect to consistently deliver 10% or greater earnings-per-share growth, return on average tangible assets of 150 basis points or greater, return on average tangible common equity of 18% or greater and efficiency ratios of less than 40% on an annual basis.
We will continue to achieve these objectives by strong execution in increasing the productivity of our teams, continuing to reposition the balance sheet, investing in client-centric technology and by retaining, acquiring and developing high-performance culturally aligned colleagues. We are constantly seeking opportunities to refine and transform our business. I want to thank our shareholders, clients, colleagues and our Board for their terrific support over the past year.
Now let's open the line for questions.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions) And we'll go first to Casey Haire with Jefferies.
Casey Haire -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Thanks. Good morning, guys.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Hey, Casey.
Casey Haire -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Good morning, guys. Starting off on the NIM guide, 3.25% to 3.35%, obviously, first quarter will be, as you take on the Woodforest booking and sell the resi portfolio, that could be noisy as well as digest the December hike. So maybe if you could just, I'm assuming, we could get a little bit of compression from the 3.15 here and then in the second quarter, we bolt up to 3.30%, 3.35%. And then what is sort of the progression thereafter and then what kind of Fed hikes do you guys bake in your guidance here?
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. So, we're baking -- so the biggest component that's going to be a determining factor in how that continues to progress over the course of the year is the performance on the deposit side and on the deposit beta. So you'll see in the release and then Jack's comments, we talked a little bit about fourth quarter was better from a beta perspective relative to the progression from second and third and then into the fourth quarter.
If that continues and based on what we're seeing on the deposit pricing side today, we should be able to be flat in the first quarter. I don't envision that it's going to have a -- there's going to be any material compression in the first quarter. And then if we're able to -- and I think we will be, complete the sales and the acquisitions in that February time frame, you are going to get a little bit of a benefit from that perspective as well as to the NIM run rate in first quarter.
So as we think about it, first quarter should be flat to slightly up. If there is some compression, I don't think that it's going to be. We don't think that it's going to be material. And then you're going to continue to see the ongoing transition of the balance sheet help out as we go forward. We're estimating one more Fed hike, but again to the extent, we have a lot of floating rate assets getting rid of the residential mortgages is going to help out a fair bit there.
So with the transitions and the actions that we're taking, we're acquiring 76% of that loan portfolio's floating rate. If it ends up being two rate hikes, I think we're going to be better positioned pro forma for these actions than what we are today. So, I think it's flat to progressively increasing over the course of the year when you think about first quarter to fourth quarter.
Casey Haire -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Okay. That's helpful. And then on the deposit outlook, you guys have -- you stuck to the loan growth guide and with the loan-to-deposit ratio at where it is today, you guys could actually not grow deposits at all and land in the middle to high end of your loan-to-deposit ratio. So, do you have -- what is the deposit growth strategy this year? Are you guys looking to grow that, or you happy to talk to (ph) let the loans grow into your current deposit base?
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Well, we're always looking for -- the most key to this is relationship deposit growth. So the way our teams are structured, they are highly incentive to bring in low cost, long-term sticky deposits. And we want as much of that deposit growth as possible. What this action allows us to do is not have to pay up for non-relationship deposits. So, it allows us to focus on the things that we've done pretty well over the period of time, which is relationship-oriented core deposits at lower costs and not have to pay up for a portion of the deposits that are much higher priced and much more competitive and frankly, much more transactional in the market.
Casey Haire -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Okay. And just, lastly, on the loan growth front. If I strip out the $504 million from Woodforest, that leaves about a $1 billion or $1.5 billion to go in this year. So, how are pipelines holding up after a decent quarter here and then, are you still optimistic on the portfolio acquisition front?
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. We're very confident on the organic side of this. Right now the economy is still strong. We're seeing lots of companies that are expanding, hiring more people, buying other companies. So, we're confident on that. We also operate in a very large, very diverse, very opportunistic market regardless of the economic environment in metropolitan New York and in some of the segments beyond. So, pipelines are very full. We have a lot of opportunity that continue to grow organically. We're very confident in those guidance numbers on the loan growth side.
Obviously, with the ultimate closure of the Woodforest deal, we're already off to -- we're already off to a good start on this early in the year, which is important as it creates earnings throughout the year. But we are very comfortable with the guidance on that organically. And then we will continue to look for opportunities to find deals that make sense. There is still continuing good flow of new portfolios and companies that are coming and we scrutinize them very diligently as we did with this deal. And there'll be opportunities, I'm sure in the future to make some acquisitions.
Casey Haire -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Great. Thank you.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
And we'll go next to Alex Twerdahl with Sandler O'Neill.
Alex Twerdahl -- Sandler O'Neill & Partners -- Analyst
Hey. Good morning, guys.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Alex.
Alex Twerdahl -- Sandler O'Neill & Partners -- Analyst
First off, just want to ask how you're planning on funding this, the $504 million acquisition you announced last night. Is the plan still to pay down the wholesale borrowings as discussed in the press release on December 20th, and if so, is this going to come from security sales or other borrowings?
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
So, we sell the mortgages, we get $1.5 billion, $1.6 billion of proceeds. We're going to use that to pay down borrowings immediately. And we are also going to trim some portions of the securities portfolio. If you will see our slide presentation, we're targeting long term about a 20% to 22% composition of securities to earning assets, today (ph), we are about 25%.
So, there's portions of the securities book that we can also trim down. But how the progression of the funding side will be, is you'll get the proceeds from the mortgage sale, we're going to pay down $1.6 billion of borrowings. We will then borrow $500 million. But longer term, we are going to trim the securities book as well. So net-net, you can -- for modeling purposes, you can decrease the borrowings for the remaining of the year by $1.5 billion relative to the mortgage sale.
Alex Twerdahl -- Sandler O'Neill & Partners -- Analyst
Okay. And then, Jack, you were talking a minute ago about the organic pipelines being very full. However, I know that sometimes, just the nature of your business as people kind of rush to get loans closed at the end of the year, so they can get paid that year. Is there going to be a little bit of a pause in sort of loan closings in the first quarter as some of those, I mean, the pipelines are little bit immature compared to how it was at the end of last quarter?
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
That's funny, Alex, you know the system there. So in this model, everybody rushes to close loans at the end of the year and then you have to build pipelines up. January in all banks, really always is a challenge because of that. All that said, our pipelines are pretty significantly ahead of where they were this time last year.
So, we have good solid pipelines. As the companies evolved, too, we're looking at being able to do larger deals and taking a little bit bigger bites of deals, not to go over too much. But we have some really good opportunities in the pipeline that are better than we would have had this time last year. And so we're very confident in the loan growth number.
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
But the first quarter is always slightly softer than the second, third and fourth quarter. So, you're definitely -- when you think about some of the seasonality that we have in factoring, in payroll finance and warehouse lending business, go back three years, four years, you always see the same dynamic, which is fourth quarter is always very good from an average balance perspective for those businesses. First quarter is not as good, and then you continue -- and then you start seeing an ongoing and continue pickup in second, third and fourth quarter.
So, we don't envision that this year will be any different. But that's one of the good things about getting the Woodforest deal closed here in February, is that from an end of period balances perspective, we're going to enjoy the $500 million and we're also going to see a nice uptick from an average balance perspective driven by that acquisition. So, good to get it done in the first quarter.
Alex Twerdahl -- Sandler O'Neill & Partners -- Analyst
Okay. And then just, finally, in the press release you talk about $5 million of additional buybacks for the first quarter. Is that pretty much a definite number that you are definitely going to do $5 million in the first quarter?
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
It's 5 million shares, not $5 million. So it's 5 million shares. And yes, that is our -- we are -- that's our target, that's our plan for the first quarter.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Unless the stock goes in like 25, which would be a good thing.
Alex Twerdahl -- Sandler O'Neill & Partners -- Analyst
Really good value at 25. That's all my questions.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
That's right.
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thanks, Alex.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
We'll go next to Dave Bishop with FIG partners.
Dave Bishop -- FIG Partners -- Analyst
Hey. Good morning, gentlemen.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Hi, Dave.
Dave Bishop -- FIG Partners -- Analyst
Hey. Jack, in your preamble, correct me if I'm wrong. Did I hear that you were able to review 100% of the Woodforest portfolio in terms of their pricing and structure? And it sounds like you came away very comfortable in terms of how they think about credit underwriting that portfolio. Just maybe walk us through that process.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. We actually -- the way we did this in this cycle, we actually reunderwrote all the loans. So, we did an underwriting of the actual loans and looked at, obviously, the pricing and risk adjusted returns. But more importantly, the credit side of this. So, we're comfortable with what we have and how they're marked and all those pieces.
The other side of this, Woodforest is a national bank. So, this is a little bit different than buying a portfolio from a private equity fund or a non-bank. They've been scrutinized by regulators since they've had this business. So, they are more standardized in the way they look at credit than maybe some other portfolios that we've looked at in the past.
Dave Bishop -- FIG Partners -- Analyst
Got it. And more of a holistic question here. I know in the past, mining these commercial finance customers from the deposits has been tough. Any change in that success here? Is that still a focus? Or is it just maybe, you just acknowledge it, it's tough to get deposits from these acquisitions or any sort of bright spots on that end?
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, we've been pretty successful by getting deposits from the acquired portfolios. On ABL, you tend to have fairly thinner balances just because of the nature of the churn of those particular types of companies. But we've been pretty successful about getting operating accounts from each of them.
And similar on a direct basis on equipment finance loans, we've been pretty successful by getting a broader relationship. So, we task our teams to do that. Actually, I think our ABL group was one of the highest percentage increase in deposit growth, although offer lower base. But in this past year because they've done a good job of being able to bring treasury management and deposit solutions to a number of those companies.
Dave Bishop -- FIG Partners -- Analyst
Got it. That's good to hear. And then, Luis, I think you touched upon it briefly in earlier question. Remind us -- remind me of the seasonality in terms of first quarter, some of the commercial segments. I know there are sort of puts and pulls here, which tend to be seasonally low, which tend to be seasonally higher in terms of funding.
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. Seasonally low, payroll finance, factoring warehouse lending, always have their lowest balance, average balance quarter in the first quarter and then you'll start seeing a pickup late first quarter. When the winter goes away and spring rolls around, that's when those business lines start perking up again. Other than that you're going to see some -- it'll be flat with a some decrease in the asset-based lending and traditional C&I side. But the average balances there should stay -- from an organic perspective, should stay pretty much in line.
And then assuming that we get this transaction closed on February 28, you'll see a nice pickup of approximately $200 million in loans on ABL and then a nice pickup in equipment finance. Other than those commercial lines, the rest of the portfolio will stay relatively flat to have an uptick in the first quarter.
Dave Bishop -- FIG Partners -- Analyst
Got it. And then in terms of the commercial real estate market, I know many of your peers bemoan the pricing and structure environment there. Any segments or niches there, where you're getting a little bit more optimistic on in terms of pricing or some opportunity to grow that a little bit more in 2019 relative to this year?
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. We actually had a pretty good growth in CRE loans last year. I think they're up -- they were 12%. And they were mostly focused on non multi-family. They weren't broker originating multifamily loans. They've actually run off. It all relates to the relationship you have with a client. So, there are niches where you can find relationships with clients where, for example, we have several clients that have 15 to 20 different loans, they stand on their loan on their own, they are priced appropriately that do deals all the time in certain markets.
Those are priced appropriate to what the market is because of the holistic relationship on the loan and deposit side of this thing. So, it's a little bit less about that category of the CRE. It's more about the type of client and the view of the holistic relationship we have. So, we find successes in everything from office to being a warehouse, a lot of owner-occupied CRE.
So, again, one of the great things about being in metropolitan New York and CRE is you can kind of pick and choose, and you can pick the deals that have relationship components and the risk -- right risk adjusted returns and frankly, say no to deals and structures that do not. So, things like, as we've said over and over again, multi -- broker originating multifamily deals are just top from a price standpoint. They're great from a credit standpoint. But from a risk adjusted return, trying to get the types of overall company returns, we're trying to get out of this thing, it's just more difficult. So, there are other alternatives to do, based on how we structure deal and the broad relationships.
Dave Bishop -- FIG Partners -- Analyst
Got it. That's good color. And then one final question. The pickup in the loan 30 to 89 past due, that's just sort of end of year waiting for financial statements to renew these loans?
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Mostly. There's one decent sized credit that represents about 40% of that uptick. That is actually related to a, I think government-related credit. That is in the process of paying us down. So, we're not concerned about that and that should be cleaned up relatively shortly here. And then the majority of the rest is exact what you're referring to, which is just loans that we highlighted in our press release. It's loans that are in the process of renewal pay off.
So no, we don't see any concerns from a perspective of delinquency trends at this point. And we look at the rest of the credits stats, NPLs decreased, OREO decreased. We've continued to have good performance and experience recently. We are just continuing to -- loans that are coming into NPLs are actually being worked out relatively quickly and real estate is actually being worked out relatively quickly as well. So, my perspective, we continue to see some positive signs there.
Dave Bishop -- FIG Partners -- Analyst
Great. Thanks for the color.
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thank you.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
We'll go next to Austin Nicholas with Stephens.
Austin Nicholas -- Stephens Inc. -- Analyst
Hey guys. Good morning.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning.
Austin Nicholas -- Stephens Inc. -- Analyst
Maybe just on the remaining resi mortgage portfolio after the sale. Can you remind us what we should expect from run-off in that -- in the kind of remaining portfolio?
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Based on what we're seeing in third and fourth quarter of '18, you should see another $500 million to $600 million of run-off in 2019. I think that based on what's happened with rates, it's going to be at the higher end of that $600 million -- of that range. But that's been pretty consistent now for three -- for two or three quarters. So, we think that's going to persist in '19.
Austin Nicholas -- Stephens Inc. -- Analyst
Got it. And then just looking at the traditional kind of C&I yields, they were down quarter-over-quarter. Any color there, and then maybe expectations for those yields as you look to the first quarter?
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. It's mix of business. We actually had -- you referenced that we had a decrease in commercial loan prepayment penalties. And that when you think about our prepayment activity, it's not only commercial real estate. A lot of what we do, I mean, on the asset-based lending side and in some of our other C&I and commercial-related businesses also had some prepayment activity associated with it. So if you adjust for that, you'd know the performance was actually, exactly what we thought it would be, which is the vast majority of what we do on the C&I side is floating rate, then it would have been a really nice increase in yields quarter-over-quarter.
So, I think that you can continue to envision that there's going to be some volatility in those -- in the yields in those commercial business lines and in that commercial loan line item. But net-net, if we continue to be in this written rate environment then with one more Fed rate hike, you should see an uptick in overall C&I and commercial loan yields over 2019.
Austin Nicholas -- Stephens Inc. -- Analyst
Got it. Thanks. And then just one last one. Is it still the plan to continue to consolidate branches and get down to that low-90s number by 2020?
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
There is. So, we're down to 106. We closed another seven or eight branches in the fourth quarter. That was the -- we have now met the goal that we had highlighted when we first announced the Astoria deal in March of '17, when we were taking the branches down from about 140 to the low-100s.
The intention is to continue to do. We're still in the, I'll call it the middle innings of working out our real estate strategy and that is going to be one component of it. We are going to continue consolidating financial centers. And by the end of 2019, we'll be much closer to the low-90s to potentially below 90.
Austin Nicholas -- Stephens Inc. -- Analyst
Understood. Thanks for taking my questions.
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thank you.
Operator
And we'll go next to Collyn Gilbert with KBW.
Collyn Gilbert -- Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods Inc. -- Analyst
Thanks. Good morning, guys.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Collyn.
Collyn Gilbert -- Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods Inc. -- Analyst
Luis, just a first quick question. On the $500 million commercial portfolio from Woodforest, what are you -- I know you guys provided the blended yield on that, but what are you assuming the blended funding cost to be to get that NIM accretion that you're talking about?
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
2%. Well, the blended cost is 2%.
Collyn Gilbert -- Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods Inc. -- Analyst
2%. Okay. Okay. That's helpful. And then how should we be thinking about the provision? Does this portfolio get -- I apologize, does it get marked or no? Like, will you need to be provided --
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
It's an asset purchase. But given that we are acquiring the origination platform, people and their processing system, that gets accounted for the business combination. So, we're not buying a company, we're buying the loans through an asset purchase. But for GAAP purposes, this will get accounted for the same way that the business combination accounting would.
So, we are going to see -- this will generate some goodwill. We will mark the portfolio to fair value. And as Jack was alluding to before, we spent a lot of time on the credit and risk management front with a very lengthy due diligence process. So, we have this -- we've got a good mark on this portfolio and we are very confident that the -- that we have it. It's going to be marked at the right place from a fair value perspective. But it's going to be no different than we would have acquired a commercial finance business of $500 million. The accounting will be the same.
Collyn Gilbert -- Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods Inc. -- Analyst
Okay. Did you -- can you share with us what the mark is?
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
We're not disclosing that info, but it's a good mark similar to what we've done in every one of the deals, Advantage, NewStar and others. It's a -- we have -- we render (ph) the portfolio. We have a good mark and we are very confident that any potential -- there's no near term credit issues that we would have to face of this portfolio given the conservative nature that we've taken on the market.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
It's interesting. So, when we look at these things, it's a combination of what the credit quality is, the price you are paying and the mark. So, it's a combination of all those factors into doing these things. We target all these deals. We target winning all -- put it through the sausage maker, at least the 20% IRR. And so we're -- and we've generally always exceeded that, the 20% to 30% range of these things. So, we take all those things into consideration.
Collyn Gilbert -- Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods Inc. -- Analyst
Okay. And just curious, maybe a little bit of background on how this came together. And I guess, it seems like it always -- it seems to makes sense for the commercial finance. Entities are selling because they have funding restraints. But I guess, given that this is a little unique, right, and that it's a bank as you guys already cited, what was -- what's their reasoning behind disposing off this business ?
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Relative size of the business to the overall size and so relative size and composition of the business relative to the overall size of the bank. So, typically what happens and again, I don't want to speak for the Woodforest folks here, but what we have seen in the past similar to when we acquired the NewStar business, a company of that size starts at specialty finance or commercial finance business line. And many times it kind of outgrows what the overall balance sheet size is for the institution. And there's -- I think that's exactly what happened here. The $500 million portfolio on about a $5 billion asset sized bank, right.
And so when you think about the proportion of that relative to the proportion that our ABL business represents of our business, you will see that we have a much more diversified commercial finance portfolio with a bunch of different asset classes in it. So, they obviously don't want to speak for them. They have their reasons for doing it. But in our history of doing these deals, that's usually one of the things that happens here is that if the business wants to continue growing of the origination platform and the sales personnel and the business development officers wants to continue originating business, always easier to do that with a larger balance sheet and larger funding capacity that we have versus the incumbent organization.
Collyn Gilbert -- Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods Inc. -- Analyst
Okay. Okay. That's helpful. And then, Luis, I think you said it before, but can you just remind us so, the provision impact then from the resi mortgage book selling off? Did you --
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. It's not going to have a big -- yeah, it's not going to have a big impact on it. So, we've been guiding to the $10 million to $12 million number probably for the last four or five quarters. That's going to continue being the same bogey. The 15 to 30 years had a very long tail to them, which is why from an interest rate risk perspective we're -- that's the portfolio that we're focusing on to get rid of.
But the way that the GAAP accounting works on, and then, again, next year, it was all going to change anyway with CECL. So, this would have been only a 12 -- a fourth quarter dynamic. The provisioning requirement, given the long tail and the mark that we had and the carrying value that we had on those loans, was not being a major driver of provisioning expense. So for modeling purposes, you shouldn't assume that provision is going to decrease substantially given the sale.
Collyn Gilbert -- Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods Inc. -- Analyst
Got it. Okay. Okay. That's helpful. And then just on the expense and fee guide that you provided in the slide deck, they just -- they seem a little aggressive, I guess, I've also been running through model. But I mean, you guys have done a great job on the expense side. I guess, I feel probably more comfortable on the expense side especially. I'm assuming a lot of that, as you pointed out is going to be driven by the continued banking center consolidations. Is that correct? Is there anything else that's going to move that number meaningfully?
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Well, I think it's two-fold. Well, I think it's two-fold. I think that you have -- so as we alluded to on the earnings release, you've seen a pretty big decrease in the data processing expense from the third quarter into the fourth quarter. So, we completed the full IP and systems integration in August. So, we haven't had a full year benefit of that operating expense yet.
So, when we're guiding from an annual run rate OpEx perspective, you're going to have a -- 2019 will be the first kind of full year of the IT systems integration, the progression of ongoing. And so we consolidated financial centers over the course of the years. In 2019, we will get the full benefit of having closed those locations. You get the full benefit of having sold the Lake Success headquarters building. You will get the full benefit. You will start to see the benefit of the ongoing consolidation dynamic.
So, you have a little bit of a waterfall impact or a snowball impact that we generated cost savings over the course of 2018 and then 2019, it's the first full year of those sales. Now with that said, we're also reinvesting in the business. We're going to be active in hiring folks. We're going to be active and continuing to invest in our IT infrastructure.
So, our run rate OpEx today is about $415 million. And as we put in our slide deck there, we've maintained that guidance constant there because we're going to continue generating sales. We are going to continue deemphasizing some of the things and the investments that we make on the kind of traditional brick and mortar retail banking side and we're going to redeploy that and to continuing to grow the commercial banking and IT and digital infrastructure that we have. So the $415 million, we're very confident about. On the fee income side, we had a very good fourth quarter. But as we put out in earnings release, a lot of the investments that we've made on the fee income side are offshoots and kind of ancillary businesses that we have from a commercial banking side.
Our loan swap business, our syndication business, our little participations business, those are all event-driven with new loan originations and so forth. So, these are not steady state. Every quarter, we're going to generate X amount. But given the pipelines that we're seeing, building the investments that we've made, we feel very confident in the $110 million low-end bogey that we provided there. And then we have enough initiatives in place that we've invested and that we -- but we feel good about being able to generate meaningful growth on the fee income side as well in 2019.
Collyn Gilbert -- Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods Inc. -- Analyst
Okay. Okay. That's great. That's super helpful. And then just finally. So, I know you guys have talked about -- and Jack, you've talked about you're managing a model here that's going to continue to generate a 10% EPS growth rate and the profitability profile that you currently have. Is that -- should we assume that 10% EPS growth rate still aligns with what you can deliver in '19?
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes.
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yes.
Collyn Gilbert -- Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods Inc. -- Analyst
Okay. Okay. That's all I had. Thanks, guys.
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thank you.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
(Operator Instructions) We'll go next to Matthew Breese with Piper Jaffray.
Matthew Breese -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
Good morning, everybody.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Good Morning, Matt.
Matthew Breese -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
I hope I'm last in the queue and if I go on too long, please cut me off. I have just a few more.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
As of now, you are. That's right.
Matthew Breese -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
So, just a couple of clarity questions. Luis, I think you said plan on borrowings being down $1.5 billion for the year. And as I think about the loan sale and what's being put on through the deal, the net balance reduction is of $1 billion. So, I just want to -- does that imply that securities portfolio will be down $400 billion, consistent with your prior comments?
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yes. Correct.
Matthew Breese -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
And so what's the yield on the securities coming off ?
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
About 2.5%.
Matthew Breese -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
2.5%. Okay. And then the other clarifying question is going back to Casey's question. So, with the Woodford (sic) (Woodforest) deal, the remaining growth bogey is $1 billion to a $1.5 billion. Is that a target that can be accomplished organically or is there another deal assumed in there?
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
It can be accomplished organically.
Matthew Breese -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
And is that the expectation?
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. I mean, again, we are -- we kind of have this toggle switch that says wherever we can find the right risk adjusted returns and the right opportunities. But we're confident it can be done organically. But there may be a portfolio that we find that has better dynamics than some of the things we see organically. But as we've drawn this up as of now, that can be accomplished organically.
Matthew Breese -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
Okay. And that segues into the next part of my question, which is, can you just remind us how many teams do you have in-house originating loans? I know there's been some investments along the way. So, they've been bolstered. And so with that, can you just give us an update on what the targeted originations are for those teams, both in terms of loans and deposits? How many are matured?
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. So, we have 36 teams in total in the company. And what we've done over the past year is we've added competencies to all the teams in one-way shape or form, either bolstering up treasury management that has had a very good year for us or -- and/or deposit gatherers, or in the case of whether deposit gatherers, primarily there are more lenders for very specific segments.
So, we're very confident in how the model works. And as you know, we tend to focus these teams. These teams are focused on a variety of sub-segments that are driven in some cases by product, some cases by industry sectors, some cases geographically and in some cases through ethnics and ethnicities. So, we've been able to create a flow of that. Again, they're compensated on how they create a profitable relationships with clients. So if you cut through all the mechanisms that we use to do that, that's what they're incented to do.
Not sure if that answered all your question, Matt?
Matthew Breese -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
Partially.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Okay.
Matthew Breese -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
We tend to be more quantitative.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
So, let me give you another -- I'll give you another quantitative number. So, we will have originated in 2018 more than $4 billion in loans through those teams. So, we were able to originate -- actually the $4 billion includes the transportation management company we acquired. But -- so between that, we originated $4 billion. And again, the toggle on that is you also have paydown. So as paydowns happen and get refinance, you have the net effect coming out of that. So, we're very confident in our ability to continue to originate enough products internally, organically to achieve those numbers.
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
I answered the question. So, thinking about it little bit differently, Matt. I think this might help you out because the whole number teams and this -- some teams do loans, some teams do deposits. So the way that you're thinking about it, which is each team, what it represents. That's not how we think about it. That's not how we manage the business, most specifically the loan growth.
If you look at the various line items and you look at the progression of our earnings release, what you're going to see in 2019, what we anticipate seeing is we're going have about $400 million to $500 million worth of growth that comes from the public sector side. You are going to see about $500 million to $750 million of growth that comes on the broad commercial real estate side, including all of our CRE category unit, categories in multifamily.
And then the remaining commercial businesses, the remaining C&I and commercial finance business lines represent about $500 million to $750 million of growth, excluding the Woodforest acquisition. You add up the Woodforest acquisition, plus those three items on the public sector, CRE and broad commercial side, you get to about to $2 billion to $2.5 billion worth of commercial loan growth. That's going to be offset by the $500 million to $600 million of run-off that we're going to see in residential. That gets you to that range that we're putting there of a $1.5 billion to $2 billion.
Matthew Breese -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
Okay. Okay. Understood.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Hopefully, that's quantitative enough for you.
Matthew Breese -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
Yeah. Jack, you still have quite a bit of confidence in the portfolio deal outlook. In prior quarters, you talked about how many bids you have outstanding or NDAs? Could you give us some color there and confidence level on -- in terms of those outstanding bids to pull through?
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. So how can I answer this question without going too far. I would answer it this way. I think that we have been very consistent over the course of 2018 in highlighting the three or four different things that an acquisition had to have for us, the key criteria that we look at. First and foremost, our number one priority or filter when we look at these things is that we very much like to -- to Jack's point before, we very much like businesses that are part of a regulated entity.
And if they're part of an OCC regulated bank like this one is, even better. That gives us the confidence that it is a bank eligible portfolio. The structuring requirements of the portfolio, the underwriting requirements of the portfolio are very similar to what we do, whenever you focus on those types of businesses.
When you start straying out into unregulated into the specialty FinCo, we always find that the quality and the credit box that those portfolios are underwritten and they are just different than what we do. So, first and foremost, the vision of a bank. Second, we don't pay big premiums for these deals. We're not disclosing the premium publicly, but this is very much in line with deals that we have done in the past. It requires no capital or no equity raise. So, you can be confident and that this meets the criteria from the perspective of being a premium that we consider to be very attractive to us.
Third, it has to be in business lines in which we're already in. We're in the ABL. We are in the equipment finance business. We have an established infrastructure of risk management with credit personnel, collateral management personnel that can go in there and reunderwrite the portfolio and know what they are looking at.
So, these are asset classes that we know very well. These are asset classes that we can reunderwrite and that we can get very confident and comfortable regarding the mark and the fair value and the carrying balance of what these loans are going to be once we own them.
And the third thing is, Jack mentioned, these have to be transactions that have an IRR dynamic to us of more than 20%. So, that's why Woodforest is -- that's why we passed on so many things is because we have a pretty good selection criteria. Deals like Woodforest meet all of those and that those are the types of deals that we focus on.
We have ongoing a number of different opportunities that we're taking a look at, that vary between asset classes and size. But the filter are those four components that we talk about and we're going to be patient. If we do a deal, that's great. And if we don't, we will use our capital and we'll buyback more shares or we'll do something else.
So it's -- we don't have a gun to our head when it comes to how we think about these M&A opportunities. I think that we demonstrated that we were quite patient in 2018. And I think we've done and we're announcing a deal that we are very confident in and that we like a lot and that meets all our criteria -- it is consistent with all of the criteria that we've been laying out for quite some time now. Our M&A criteria is not going to change. We're going to continue to explore opportunities under that those four or five different filters. And when we find one that works, great and if not, that's fine too.
Matthew Breese -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
Right. Okay. I appreciate that. That's on the portfolio deal M&A front. Do you have any updated color on whether a whole bank M&A is on the radar and how activity in your marketplace is trending?
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Well, there's lots of opportunity right now. So, I have said this to a lot of people. I've never seen more times when there's more banks to -- that want our interest in selling and so a few banks that are interested in buying. So -- and again, everything's related to price and timing on that. All that said, we put that on the back burner for a period of time.
There will be a time when it is appropriate for us. And it's like, Luis mentioned on the portfolio deals. It has to come together in the right price and banks case, the right culture, the right situation. And so we're always going to look and we're always going to have conversations. But right now that's a little bit more on the back burner than it is on the front burner right now.
Matthew Breese -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
Great. Okay. And my last couple is just looking at Woodford (sic) (Woodforest), they happen to be located in Texas and so --
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Woodforest. Woodforest, not Woodford.
Matthew Breese -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
Yeah. Understood. They're located in Texas, and so I was curious if the acquisition exposes you to the energy sector at all and in what ways?
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes. So, we are actually there. The team that we are acquiring is actually in Detroit. So, Woodforest equipment in ABL team is actually in Detroit, and they cover generally the Midwest and the Southwest, which are areas where we are interested in adding capacity. So, one of the other side benefits to Woodforest, it bounces out some of the areas that we weren't -- we didn't have as deeper coverage as we had previously.
It does have some energy-related credits involved in this, but the energy related are not spec energy. They're kind of fundamental equipment that relates to the operating of energy types of companies. So again, that's part of the underwriting and we're very comfortable with the mix of businesses.
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Matt, energy is not a significant component of the portfolio. And you can assume, when we talk about credit marks being conservative, those are the areas that we actually focus on. So there's -- but it's not a significant component of what they did. It's not -- as Jack said, it's a Texas-based bank, but this was not a Texas-based business. It's not an energy-based business.
Matthew Breese -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
Got it. Okay. And then that leads to my last one, which is, I know there were portions of the Advantage portfolio that weren't asset classes, as you necessarily wanted to be in. Is there anything like that here? And when we look at the $504 million, would that be netted by anything that you don't necessarily want?
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
About 10% of it, and you can assume that it's the energy-related type stuff but it's not even that high. But it's -- certainly, it's the same thing that we talked about with Advantage, same thing that we talked about when we did NewStar. Every time that you acquire these businesses, as long as the business and the origination platform focuses on 90% plus of what it does in business lines that fit our credit box, then we are very confident that we can work out the rest.
And we've done that with NewStar. We've done that with Advantage already. And we will do the same thing here. So, it's not a significant component of the book. And it's not -- again, we're going to have this market in a place where we don't have to take a drastic action on that component of the book. We are not concerned from that perspective.
Matthew Breese -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
Understood. Okay. That's all I had. I appreciate you being patient with me. Thank you.
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thanks, Matt.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Anything else?
Operator
There are no further questions in queue. I'd like to turn it back over to the speakers for any additional or closing remarks.
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. Great questions, everybody. Thank you so much for your time. Have a great day.
Operator
That concludes today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.
Duration: 52 minutes
Call participants:
Jack L. Kopnisky -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Casey Haire -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Luis Massiani -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Alex Twerdahl -- Sandler O'Neill & Partners -- Analyst
Dave Bishop -- FIG Partners -- Analyst
Austin Nicholas -- Stephens Inc. -- Analyst
Collyn Gilbert -- Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods Inc. -- Analyst
Matthew Breese -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
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