Mercantile reports earnings, loan growth

Mercantile reports earnings, loan growth
President and CEO of Mercantile Bank Corp. Bob Kaminski Jr.

GRAND RAPIDS — Mercantile Bank Corp. grew earnings for the fourth quarter and all of 2019.

The Grand Rapids-based Mercantile Bank (Nasdaq: MBWM) today reported it generated fourth quarter net income of $13.3 million, or 81 cents per diluted share. That compares to net income of $11.5 million, or 70 cents per diluted share, in the same period a year earlier.

Net income for all of 2019 totaled $49.4 million, or $3.01 per diluted share, versus $42.0 million, or $2.53 per diluted share, for 2018.

The bank grew total loans by 3.6 percent to close 2019 at $2.85 billion.

Mercantile Bank’s commercial loans grew 3.3 percent to $2.44 billion as of Dec. 31, 2019. The growth came despite what President and CEO Bob Kaminski Jr. called an “unusually high level” of commercial loan payoffs in the fourth quarter that trimmed commercial loans by $67 million as borrowers took advantage of lower interest rates and refinanced at fixed rates.

Mercantile Bank at year’s end had commitments for commercial construction and development loans of about $105 million that it expects to fund in the next 12 to 18 months.

“Based on our strong capital position and healthy commercial loan and residential mortgage loan pipelines and prospects, we believe that the solid financial performance achieved during 2019 has positioned us for further success in the quarters and years ahead,” Kaminiski said.

Mercantile Bank has 40 offices across the Lower Peninsula with total deposits of $2.69 billion.