A year after completing its initial public offering, Jacksonville-based EverBank Financial Corp. held its first annual shareholders meeting Thursday, giving Chairman and CEO Robert Clements a chance to tout a number of accomplishments in the bank's past 12 months as a public company.
"2012 was a historic and transformative year for EverBank as we executed on our strategic plans, raised approximately $400 million of equity growth capital and consummated two important acquisitions," Clements said at the meeting at the Downtown EverBank Center.
"In summary, we believe we had a great year in 2012," he said.
The acquisitions were MetLife Bank's warehouse finance business and General Electric Capital Corp.'s Business Property Lending Inc. unit.
"Both of these businesses have now been fully integrated into EverBank and are contributing to our growth," Clements said.
Helped by those deals, EverBank grew its total assets by 40 percent to $18.2 billion last year but aside from acquisitions, assets grew organically by 73 percent, he said.
Clements said the company also invested in its infrastructure and added to its management team in 2012.
"We believe these investments provide us a long-term competitive advantage and we feel that we now have the key pieces in place to achieve sustainable long-term growth," he said.
"We look forward to leveraging these investments as we continue to grow and scale the company," he said.
EverBank went public in May 2012 by selling 22.1 million shares of stock for $10 each.
The stock has done well since the IPO, reaching as high as $17.29 and trading near the $16 level recently.
Clements told shareholders he expects EverBank to continue to build value for them.
"We're doing that by remaining true to the ideals that have always guided EverBank: disciplined management, a long-term focus, a commitment to excellence and an unwavering emphasis on entrepreneurship and innovation," he said.
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