Old National Bancorp is continuing to push for
Jim Ryan, the CEO of Evansville, Indiana-based Old National, is open to additional deals, as well.
"While many in our industry spent the year on defense, we remain on offense by continuing to invest in new client-facing and key support talent and being ready and opportunistic for acquisitions as evidenced by our recently
Old National said in late October that it would acquire the $3 billion-asset CapStar in an-all stock deal valued at $344.4 million when announced. It marked the
The deal would push the $49 billion-asset Old National over the $50 billion mark and give it a top-10 deposit market share in the Nashville metropolitan area. Old National entered Tennessee in 2022, when it introduced a Nashville-based high-net-worth wealth management operation there. Shortly after that, it added a commercial banking team there.
Ryan touted Old National's increasing scale but said the bank remains small enough to make timely adjustments to market conditions or to pursue new growth opportunities, including future deals.
"I really think we're in a sweet spot. We're big enough to be relevant and compete for almost any client situation in the markets we serve," Ryan said. Yet, "we're not so big that we get in our own way. Sometimes as you get bigger, we know that happens. We're close to our clients, we're nimble, we're fast, we're opportunistic."
Old National continues to anticipate closing the CapStar deal by the end of the second quarter. Analysts asked for assurances on that front, given a
"With respect to the regulatory applications, we feel really good about that," Ryan said. "We're in constant dialogue with the regulators."
Ryan noted that Old National earlier this month added $1.2 billion to a community growth plan unveiled in 2022 in collaboration with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. The plan, now totaling $9.5 billion, would support historically underserved and economically disadvantaged individuals and communities, and it would extend to CapStar's footprint.
"We thought [it] was an important step as a part of the process to get to the finish line here," Ryan said. "So I mean it's hard to always predict exactly when you're going to get approval for these things. But nonetheless, we feel really good about where we stand at this point in time."
There were only
Because of regulations as well as "the threat of a recession and mismatched valuation expectations," deal activity was "very weak" last year across most sectors, said Carole Streicher, head of deal advisory and strategy at KPMG U.S.
At a time when several other large regional banks are reporting flat lending, Old National said it grew its loans by 6% from a year earlier and 1% from the prior quarter.
Still, like most of its peers, Old National said it continues to pay up for deposits amid a prolonged period of
Old National reported fourth-quarter net income applicable to common shares of $128.4 million, or 44 cents per share, compared with $196.7 million, or 67 cents, a year earlier.
Earnings were also impacted by a $19.1 million special assessment to help replenish the Deposit Insurance Fund following the failures of multiple regional banks last year. All regional banks were assessed to rebuild the fund.
