BB&T's 4th Quarter EPS totals $0.55, up 83%; Earnings up 88% to $391 million

WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina, January 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

- 2011 earnings total $1.3 billion, up 58%

BB&T Corporation (NYSE: BBT) today reported fourth quarter net income available to common shareholders of $391 million, an increase of 88% compared to $208 million reported in the fourth quarter 2010. Earnings per diluted common share totaled $0.55, an increase of 83%, compared to $0.30 earned in the fourth quarter last year.

For 2011, net income available to common shareholders was $1.3 billion, or $1.83 per diluted common share, compared with $816 million, or $1.16 per diluted common share, earned in 2010. This reflects an increase of 58% for both net income available for common shareholders and earnings per share.

"The year 2011 was an outstanding year for BB&T considering the challenges facing the economy and financial services industry," said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kelly S. King. "We met essentially all of our strategic objectives, and are successfully emerging from the credit cycle. We are also very pleased to report a strong performance for the fourth quarter and the full year. Our fourth quarter net income available to common shareholders of $391 million reflects our strongest quarterly earnings since mid 2008. The increase was driven by improved revenues, accelerating loan growth and much improved credit quality. Adjusted revenues totaled $2.3 billion this quarter, up an annualized 12% compared to last quarter.

"BB&T's loan growth continues to accelerate," King said. "Average loans held for investment grew an annualized 7%, and, excluding our covered and residential ADC portfolios, increased an annualized 10%. We are very optimistic about our loan growth, as production pipelines remain robust.

"BB&T had another strong quarter growing deposits and improving our deposit mix," King said. "Average deposits increased 24% on an annualized basis compared to the third quarter, and noninterest-bearing deposits and interest checking increased 31% and 10%, respectively. We made further progress on our strategy to reduce the cost of interest-bearing deposits. The cost this quarter was 0.56% compared with 0.65% last quarter.

"We announced last quarter an effort to drive foreclosed property balances lower by implementing a more aggressive disposition strategy," said King. "This effort proved very successful, as our OREO balances, excluding covered foreclosed property, declined 41% and nonperforming assets declined 17% by the end of the quarter.

"Given our strong momentum in growing revenues, loans and deposits, combined with our outlook for significantly lower credit costs and focus on efficiency, we are very optimistic about 2012," said King.

Fourth Quarter 2011 Performance Highlights

• Average total loans and leases held for investment increased 7.3% on an annualized basis compared to the third quarter
  • Average C&I loans increased 11.0%
  • Average direct retail loans increased 11.2%
  • Average mortgage loans increased 26.0%
  • Average sales finance loans increased 4.1%
  • Average revolving credit loans increased 9.4%
  • Average loans originated in the other lending subsidiaries group decreased 1.1% due to seasonal factors
  • Average residential ADC loans declined 42.8%

• Revenues increased due to balance sheet growth and higher noninterest revenue
  • Revenues were $2.3 billion for the fourth quarter, adjusted for securities gains and losses, the provision for covered loans offset and losses on NPA loan sales, up an annualized 11.8%
  • The net interest margin was 4.02% for the fourth quarter, down 2 basis points compared to the fourth quarter of 2010 and down 7 basis points compared to last quarter
  • The margin decline reflects the runoff of covered assets and larger securities balances as a percentage of earning assets

• BB&T continues to successfully execute NPA disposition efforts
  • NPAs decreased 17.5% excluding covered assets, the 7th consecutive quarter with lower NPAs
  • OREO balances, excluding covered items, declined 41.4% due to management's more aggressive disposal efforts
  • Net charge-offs, excluding covered, totaled 1.46% of average loans for the quarter, relatively flat compared to the third quarter of 2011

• Average deposits increased $6.9 billion, or 23.7% on an annualized linked quarter basis
  • Average noninterest-bearing deposits increased $1.8 billion, or 31.3%
  • Average interest-bearing deposit costs were reduced to 0.56% compared to 0.65% in the third quarter

• Capital levels remained strong in the quarter
  • Tangible common equity was 6.9%
  • Tier 1 common equity was 9.7%
  • Tier 1 risk-based capital was 12.4%
  • Leverage capital remained strong at 9.0%
  • Total capital was 15.7%

BB&T expands through acquisitions

During the quarter, BB&T announced plans to acquire Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based BankAtlantic, the wholly owned subsidiary of BankAtlantic Bancorp. The acquisition will accelerate BB&T's expansion in Southeast Florida to No. 6 in the Miami market. BB&T will acquire approximately $3.3 billion in largely core, low-cost deposits and $2.1 billion in loans for an estimated premium of $301 million above the net asset value of BankAtlantic at closing. The agreement excludes nonperforming and other criticized assets and is accretive to earnings per share.

On Nov. 3, 2011, BB&T Insurance Services expanded its California operations through the acquisition of Precept Group, an industry-leading full-service employee benefits consulting and administrative solutions firm. With offices in Irvine and San Ramon, Calif., the acquisition adds 140 employees to BB&T Insurance Services.

Earnings webcast, presentation and Quarterly Performance Summary

To hear a live webcast of BB&T's fourth quarter 2011 earnings conference call at 8 a.m. (ET) today, please visit our website at http://www.BBT.com. A presentation will be used during the earnings conference call and is available on our website. Replays of the conference call will be available on the BB&T website until Friday, February 3, 2012, or by dialing 1-888-203-1112 (access code 4313363) until Jan. 24, 2012.

To access the webcast and presentation, including an appendix reconciling non-GAAP disclosures, go to http://www.BBT.com and click on "About BB&T" and proceed to "Investor Relations." The webcast link can be found under "Webcasts" and the presentation can be found under "View Recent Presentations."

BB&T's fourth quarter 2011 Quarterly Performance Summary, which contains detailed financial schedules, is available on BB&T's website at http://www.BBT.com/financials.html.

About BB&T

As of Dec. 31, 2011, BB&T is one of the largest financial services holding companies in the U.S. with $174.6 billion in assets and market capitalization of $17.5 billion. Based in Winston-Salem, N.C., the company operates approximately 1,800 financial centers in 12 states and Washington, D.C., and offers a full range of consumer and commercial banking, securities brokerage, asset management, mortgage and insurance products and services. A Fortune 500 company, BB&T is consistently recognized for outstanding client satisfaction by J.D. Power and Associates, the U.S. Small Business Administration, Greenwich Associates and others. More information about BB&T and its full line of products and services is available at http://www.BBT.com.

Current quarter capital ratios are preliminary. Credit quality data excludes covered and government guaranteed loans where applicable.

This news release contains financial information and performance measures determined by methods other than in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("GAAP"). BB&T's management uses these "non-GAAP" measures in their analysis of the corporation's performance. BB&T's management uses these measures to evaluate the underlying performance and efficiency of its operations. It believes that these non-GAAP measures provide a greater understanding of ongoing operations and enhance comparability of results with prior periods as well as demonstrating the effects of significant gains and charges in the current period. The company believes that a meaningful analysis of its financial performance requires an understanding of the factors underlying that performance. BB&T's management believes that investors may use these non-GAAP financial measures to analyze financial performance without the impact of unusual items that may obscure trends in the company's underlying performance. These disclosures should not be viewed as a substitute for financial measures determined in accordance with GAAP, nor are they necessarily comparable to non-GAAP performance measures that may be presented by other companies. Tangible common equity and Tier 1 common equity ratios are non-GAAP measures. BB&T uses the Tier 1 common equity definition used in the SCAP assessment to calculate these ratios. BB&T's management uses these measures to assess the quality of capital and believes that investors may find them useful in their analysis of the corporation. These capital measures are not necessarily comparable to similar capital measures that may be presented by other companies. Asset quality ratios have been adjusted to remove the impact of acquired loans and foreclosed property covered by the FDIC loss sharing agreements as management believes their inclusion results in distortion of those ratios and may not be comparable to other periods presented or to other portfolios that were not impacted by purchase accounting.

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may address issues that involve significant risks, uncertainties, estimates and assumptions made by management. Actual results may differ materially from current projections. Please refer to BB&T's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a summary of important factors that may affect BB&T's forward-looking statements. BB&T undertakes no obligation to revise these statements following the date of this news release.