Colony Bank (CBAN) 2026年第三季財報電話會議：淨息差擴大，First Reliance 交易交割在即

重點摘要

• 營運淨收益增加至 1,160 萬美元，而撥備前營運淨收入達到約 1,630 萬美元。
• 淨利息收益率 較上季擴張 7 個基點至 3.59%，主要受惠於獲利資產收益率提高，以及新撥貸與展期放款的加權平均利率達到 7.26%。
• 本季年化放款成長率約為 2%，今年以來年化成長率則為 5.4%。管理階層預期 2027 年成長率約為 5%，低於其 8% 至 12% 的長期目標。
• Colony Bank 本季營運 ROA 突破 1.25%。管理階層預計，在整合 First Reliance 期間，ROA 將下降 10 至 15 個基點，隨後在成本節省效應顯現後，朝至少 1.35% 的目標邁進。
• First Reliance 的交易預計於 11 月 1 日 在法律上正式完成，系統轉換預計於 2027 年第二季末進行，併購成本節省效益則預期自 2027 年第三季起顯現。
• Colony Bank 以 1,990 萬美元 完成三家分行的售後租回交易，預計產生約 1,500 萬美元的稅前利益，並計劃透過出售表現不佳的證券來進行抵銷。

關鍵財務數據

業務與營運表現

較高的放款收益率持續支撐利差擴張。Colony Bank 指出 2.23 億美元、平均收益率為 5.21% 的固定利率放款，以及 7,600 萬美元、收益率為 1.77% 的投資，為 2027 年潛在的重定價上升空間來源。

營運非利息收入受惠於存款相關手續費、手續費拆帳收益及 SBA 相關收入增加。SBSL 部門從小企業署 (SBA) 放款出售中獲得更高收益，且放款量也有所增長。管理階層表示，目前大部分的 SBSL 放款量為營建貸款，預計將於 2027 年出售。

由於利率居高不下及季節性因素，房貸業務量有所放緩。管理階層正在調整費用與營運量能，以因應近期較低的業務量，同時保留隨時間擴展合併後房貸平台的能力。

本季船舶與露營車 (RV) 貸款增加約 1,000 萬美元，相關利息收入增加 19 萬美元。Colony Financial Advisors 管理資產規模增加 1,700 萬美元，相當於約 11% 的年化成長率。

Colony Bank 繼續將建立關係為導向的營運帳戶視為優先，而非高成本、對利率敏感的存款。管理階層將與 First Reliance 的整合視為拓展南卡羅來納州商業、零售、金庫管理、財富管理及存款招攬能力的良機。

管理階層營運展望

管理階層預計在完成 First Reliance 交易後，2026 年第四季淨利息收益率將有所提升，這反映了收購會計處理與折價攤銷。若扣除折價攤銷，隨著低收益貸款與投資重新定價，管理階層亦預計核心利差將適度改善。

該公司預計 2027 年放款成長率約為 5%，因為定價紀律與獲利能力仍是首要考量。管理階層表示，一旦長期利率更加明朗且利差達到更健康的水平，成長率最終可能會回到 8% 至 12% 的長期區間。

由於合併後的公司在 2027 年第二季末之前將在兩個核心系統上運作，預計未來幾個季度的營運 ROA 將下降 10 至 15 個基點。管理階層繼續以 ROA 達到 1.35% 或更高 為目標，併購成本節省效益預計自 2027 年第三季開始顯現。

在資產負債表重組方面，Colony Bank 預計出售約 1 億美元收益率約 2% 的證券。其再投資假設報酬率為 5.5%，主要透過五年或以下的放款進行，預計超過一半的資金將在未來幾個季度轉入放款。管理階層預計該交易最終將為利差和 ROA 增加幾個基點，但要到 2027 年底才能看到完整效益。

風險與關注領域

較高的利率限制了房地產專案活動、放緩了房貸撥貸速度，並加劇了存款競爭。管理階層還指出，未實現投資損失和累計其他綜合損益承受額外壓力，儘管本季每股有形帳面價值仍有增加。

關注類與列管類放款增加，主要是因為一筆總計約 1,600 萬美元 的商業營建曝險。管理階層將此歸因於特定借款人問題，並表示近期鑑價顯示擔保品涵蓋充足，但解決可能需要一到兩個季度。

該公司在轉銷前，就先前 TC Federal 貸款列記了 57.5 萬美元 的衡量期間調整。若不考慮該項目，第三季的轉銷金額約為 110 萬美元。

在完成核心系統轉換前，併購整合將使費用維持高檔。售後租回也將使年度 GAAP 費用扣除當前折舊後增加約 180 萬美元，第一年基本租金為 165 萬美元，並按每年 2% 遞增。

分析師問答重點

管理階層將較為保守的放款成長展望歸因於房地產活動疲軟，以及部分放款機會未能符合其定價要求。管理階層認為，約 5% 的成長率在資產負債表擴張與利差改善之間取得了適當平衡。

在房貸業務方面，管理階層強調其對手續費收入與存款關係的長期戰略重要性。合併後的平台預計將提供更大的營運靈活性（包括 First Reliance 的第三方撥貸能力），但近期費用正配合較疲軟的業務量進行調降調整。

管理階層預計在完成 First Reliance 收購後恢復庫藏股買回。其計劃考慮進行系統性的季度庫藏股買回，同時在市場狀況與價格許可時保持擇機操作。

在證券投資組合方面，管理階層表示，重新定位旨在縮短存續期間、改善利率風險，並為未來的放款成長創造流動性。First Reliance 的投資證券預計將繼續分類為供出售金融資產。

電話會議完整逐字稿

完整財報電話會議逐字稿

管理層陳述

Operator

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Colony Bank Third Quarter 2026 Conference Call.

[Operator Instructions]

I will now hand the conference over to Brantley Collins, Communications Manager. Brantley, please go ahead.

Brantley Collins

Thanks, Megan. Before we get started, I would like to go through our standard disclosures. Certain statements we make on this call could be constituted as forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Current and prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance but involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties.

Factors that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to, pandemics, variations of the company's assets, businesses, cash flows, financial condition, prospects and other results of operations. Additional cautionary statements related to the First Reliance merger are located in our merger press release, merger investor presentation and SEC filings, all of which are available on our website. I would also like to add that during our call today, we will reference our third quarter earnings release and investor presentation, which were filed yesterday, so please have those available to reference.

And with that, I will turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Heath Fountain.

T. Fountain

Thanks, Brantley, and thank you to everyone for joining our third quarter earnings call today. We are pleased to report improved financial performance for the quarter, and our team continues to make progress towards achieving our goals. We previously announced that regulatory and shareholder approvals have been obtained for our partnership with First Reliance, and we are expecting legal close to occur on November 1. Both teams have been working diligently toward ensuring a smooth transition for both the upcoming legal close in November and the scheduled systems conversion and customer integration that will occur in the second quarter of next year. We are proud of the progress both teams have made, and we remain on track with our time line.

We are pleased to have surpassed a 1.25% operating ROA this quarter and believe we are on a good long-term trajectory for continued growth and profitability. However, as we integrate First Reliance, we expect ROA to pull back by 10 to 15 basis points over the next few quarters due to higher expenses associated with operating the combined company on 2 core systems until conversion late in the second quarter of 2027. We still feel good about reaching our ROA target of 1.35% or better, but that will occur after we start to realize the full cost savings, which will begin in the third quarter of next year.

Loan growth for the third quarter was around 2% annualized, and that brings us to about 5.4% year-to-date annualized loan growth. Pricing discipline remains a priority for us, and the rising rate environment has tempered near-term loan growth compared to our long-term target of 8% to 12%. Repricing of loan renewals from lower rates will continue to provide opportunities to capture increased interest income and drive growth in earning asset yields even as near-term net loan growth is softer.

As we look out into next year, given the current economic environment and rate outlook, we think we'll be looking at loan growth around our current level of 5% for the coming year as we continue to prioritize improving profitability.

Margin improved 7 basis points from the prior quarter to 3.59% and reflects continued balance sheet improvement and a healthy weighted average rate on new and renewed loans. As illustrated on Slide 40, our expected base case repricing unlocks substantial value heading into 2027. The spread between our legacy asset yields and current origination rates will allow us to drive meaningful net interest income growth as those loans and investments reprice. Our noninterest income was strong this quarter, expanding over the prior quarter, thanks to disciplined execution and steady growth across our business lines. However, as the rate environment remains relatively elevated, we do expect mortgage origination volumes to moderate. Higher mortgage rates naturally create a cooling effect on home sales and refinance pipelines, and we are proactively managing that business to align with expected production levels.

As we look at the combined company, we expect mortgage production to be softer in the near term compared to our original projections. We are actively rightsizing expenses and operational infrastructure to match expected mortgage volumes while preserving the capacity needed to scale effectively over the long term.

Core deposits remain a strategic priority. While competition across our footprint has increased in this rate environment, our team remains disciplined by prioritizing relationship-driven low-cost operating accounts over high-cost rate-sensitive deposits that compromise our net interest margin. This approach aligns with our current lending posture and lower near-term loan growth expectations. Our focus is on an efficient balance of -- on efficient balance sheet growth to drive earnings improvement over the long term rather than funding growth at the expense of margin.

Treasury yields across the curve have reached multi-decade highs, creating some incremental pressure on our unrealized investment losses and AOCI. The impact today on our portfolio is less pronounced than what we experienced in prior cycles. Our efforts to downsize the bond portfolio and allow duration to shorten have positioned the balance sheet to be more resilient to rate volatility. Even after absorbing these marks this quarter, our tangible book value per share increased from the prior quarter and our TCE ratio held firm.

Yesterday, we also announced the sale-leaseback transaction for 3 of our retail branch locations with a lease agreement to lease back those branches for an initial 15-year term. There will be no closures or customer impacts as part of this transaction and the lease term represents a long-term commitment to those markets and to our customers there. We expect a gain on sale of the assets of approximately $15 million, which we plan to fully offset with a strategic sale of underperforming securities. We plan to redeploy proceeds primarily in loans over the next several quarters, providing liquidity for future growth and improving the position of the balance sheet. While we may be opportunistic in purchasing investments, reinvesting proceeds back into similar duration securities at higher yields is not part of our strategy.

The 2 primary considerations for us to consider a balance sheet restructure have been the ability to improve our net interest rate risk position and to deploy the funds into loans. Derek will provide more detail on the transaction and Slides 17 and 18 in our investor presentation gives an overview. We expect the net outcome will be accretive to tangible book value and to earnings.

Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, our primary focus is on execution. Completing our partnership with First Reliance is a transformative milestone that significantly elevates our scale and competitive positioning across the Southeast. We are executing from a position of financial strength, and we are excited about the significant value this combination will unlock heading into 2027.

With that, I'll turn it over to Derek to go over the financials in more detail.

Derek Shelnutt

Thank you, Heath. Operating net income increased to $11.6 million in the third quarter, and operating pre-provision net revenue increased to approximately $16.3 million. Earning asset yields increased for another consecutive quarter, leading to margin expansion of 7 basis points to 3.59%. Net interest income increased approximately $508,000, and the driver behind the increase is the new and renewed weighted average loan rate of 7.26% compared to 7.14% in the previous quarter and shown on Slide 38. Overall cost of funds ticked up slightly to 1.98% from 1.95% in the prior quarter and is representative of the current rate environment and rate outlook. We expect long-term deposit betas to be in line with the previous cycle, although the timing could be slightly different due to the competitive nature and sensitivity of depositors across the combined company's footprint.

Margin is expected to increase in the fourth quarter due to the impacts of purchase accounting and accretion after the close of the merger. We still expect that increase to be largely in line with our initial projections. Heath mentioned repricing in 2027, and we feel that will be a meaningful contributor to net interest income and margin as those dollars reprice. As shown on Slide 40, base case indicates $223 million of fixed rate loans currently at an average rate to date of 5.21% and $76 million of investments at an average of 1.77%. This provides the opportunity to pick up meaningful yield on the repricing of those assets at today's rates.

Operating noninterest income increased $702,000 from the previous quarter to $12.3 million. The quarter-over-quarter increase is primarily attributed to increased deposit-related fees, interchange income and SBA-related income. Slide 19 shows the pretax performance of our business lines. Mortgage production has slowed in the current rate environment and upon entering a seasonally lower period of activity. Marine and RV lending shows a decline in pretax income. However, we allocate funding costs based on market-driven funds transfer pricing, and those costs were higher in the quarter due to market dynamics. Those costs are eliminated on a consolidated basis, but are included in their stand-alone metrics. For marine and RV lending, interest income grew by $190,000 in the quarter and loans outstanding increased about $10 million.

Colony Financial Advisors pretax income slightly decreased quarter-over-quarter due to additional commission income in the second quarter. AUM increased $17 million quarter-over-quarter or about 11% annualized. The SBSL division improvement during the quarter is related to increased gain on sale of SBA loans. Production also increased during the quarter, but the production we are seeing in SBSL is primarily construction type loans that will be sold in the next year.

Additionally, in noninterest income, we received insurance proceeds related to a loss at one of our banking center locations, which is treated as a onetime gain under GAAP. We also sold a small amount of securities for a loss during the quarter. Both of these items are excluded from operating noninterest income. Operating noninterest expenses increased $950,000 in the third quarter. Roughly half the increase was in loan-related expenses for the SBSL division and the other driver was related to performance-based compensation. Overall, our operating net noninterest expense to average assets was 1.53%, up slightly from 1.51% in the second quarter. Our long-term goal on net NIE is still 1.45%, but it will take several quarters to shift back toward that number. After a legal close with First Reliance, we will have elevated expenses until core conversion late in the second quarter of 2027.

We still feel comfortable with our merger-related cost save projections, but we'll not begin to see those until the third quarter of 2027 after the systems conversion. Provision expense totaled $1.65 million and was a slight decrease from the prior quarter. Net charge-offs were slightly lower than last quarter and charge-offs from SBSL were lower in the third quarter by $450,000. Included in the charge-off number for the third quarter is a charge-off related to a legacy TC Federal loan. During the third quarter, we became aware of circumstances related to one loan that existed prior to the merger with Colony. Because the underlying conditions were present as of the merger date, we recognized a $575,000 measurement period adjustment to our credit loss reserve and goodwill. The amount was then charged off at the end of the quarter. And excluding that one item, charge-offs would have been approximately $1.1 million.

Criticized loans and classified loans increased during the quarter and are largely related to one commercial construction loan with one borrower totaling approximately $16 million. Based on recent appraisals, we are adequately collateralized, which should help mitigate our ultimate risk as we manage the credit towards resolution. This downgrade reflects circumstances specific to this individual borrower and is not indicative of any broader systemic trends across our loan portfolio.

The overall levels of criticized and classified loans represent a relatively low level compared to our total loans and below our targeted thresholds. First Reliance also has strong credit quality and when combined, those levels also represent a small percentage of total loans. Heath mentioned loan growth for the quarter. And on a year-to-date basis, loan growth is approximately 5.4% annualized. Looking ahead to repricing in 2027 as lower-yielding fixed rate loans approach maturity, we have the ability to be competitive on pricing while also capturing meaningful yield pickup on those loans and maintaining those loan relationships. As Heath mentioned, looking ahead to next year's loan growth, in the current environment, we are projecting a similar 5% growth as we continue to focus on pricing discipline and profitability.

Total deposits declined $14.5 million during the quarter and is representative of the seasonality of our deposit base. We prioritize growing core relationships over rate-sensitive high-cost deposits and believe this approach enhances our core deposit franchise. This week, the Board declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.12 per share. TCE at the end of the quarter was 8.99%, which is flat compared to the second quarter. Tangible book value per share increased to $15.16, up from $15.12 in the prior quarter, both slightly impacted by an increased AOCI loss position. We paused stock repurchases during the quarter due to the pending merger with First Reliance. However, we do expect to be active again as appropriate after the close of the merger.

Heath mentioned we completed a sale-leaseback transaction this week and on Slide 17 and 18, we provide an overview. The aggregate sales price is $19.9 million with a total first year base rent of $1.65 million, subject to 2% annual escalations. On a GAAP basis under lease accounting, we expect expense to increase by $1.8 million annually, net of the current depreciation expense on those locations. That represents an expense that's less than 1.5% of the combined company's projected expense base. We expect a pretax gain of approximately $15 million, which will be offset with the sale of underperforming available-for-sale securities. The current tax adjusted unrealized losses on AFS securities are recorded in AOCI, but the gain on the building -- or the gain on the sale of the building is not. Therefore, will be accretive to tangible book value with neutral regulatory capital impacts. The purpose of the strategic repositioning is to improve our balance sheet health, improve our interest rate risk profile and give us flexibility while providing liquidity for future loan growth.

We expect to sell approximately $100 million of securities currently yielding around 2%. We expect the redeployment of the proceeds from both the security sale and the building sales to be in a combination of loans, cash or short-to-medium duration securities that provide liquidity and cash flow going forward. Redeployment in loans gives us the opportunity to be competitive on high-quality credit opportunities while realizing a meaningful pickup in yield compared to the securities sold. Our reinvest assumption is 5.5%, and we expect to redeploy more than half the proceeds into loans over the next several quarters while keeping the remainder for liquidity.

We expect this to ultimately result in accretion to margin and ROA of about a few basis points. However, the timing of that full realization will not happen until late next year. We will maintain appropriate on-hand cash but may purchase short-term T-bills to align with loan funding expectations and projections. We will be opportunistic on the purchase of investments that are short to medium duration, but this is secondary to lending and liquidity. Our objective is to unlock liquidity from underperforming securities to position us for future loan growth and improve our interest rate risk profile, not to reinvest back into similar duration bonds simply for the yield pickup. We expect the increased interest income to be greater than the lease expense, leading to increased overall earnings.

First Reliance reported their third quarter results yesterday, and they were largely in line with our expectations and projections. Our projections on the impact of the First Reliance merger remain in line with what we reported at announcement. Of course, since we made that announcement back in June, we've seen increases in medium- and long-term rates. Given the shorter duration of their loans and investments, we do not expect those to have a major impact on our initial projections on earnback. The slight increase we may see on day 1 marks would be offset by higher accretion.

That concludes my overview, and now I'll turn it back over to Heath before we take questions.

T. Fountain

Thanks, Derek, and thanks, everyone, again for being on the call today. We're pleased with our performance this quarter, which met our expectations for performance and exceeded external expectations. I'm proud of how our team executed on achieving our desired results from the TC Federal merger, which positions us well for our upcoming merger with First Reliance and demonstrates the strength of our M&A strategy to gain scale and improve operating performance. Further, our expense and pricing discipline set us up well to finish the year strong.

That wraps up our prepared remarks. And with that, I'll call on Megan to open up the floor for questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

Your first question comes from the line of David Bishop with Hovde Group.

分析師問答

David Bishop

Heath, noted your comments regarding the expectations for loan growth sort of settling in the 5% range. And it sounds like your origination yields came up. Is that sort of the factor governing the growth? It's just less projects sort of -- you're maintaining your pricing discipline and that's sort of impacting some of the ability for some of these projects to pencil out? I guess are you sort of pricing above the market? Just curious what's sort of leading to that conservatism relative to loan growth versus the longer-term growth rate?

T. Fountain

Yes, Dave, good question. And I think it's really a couple of things. One is we are seeing some softening of real estate projects overall just in the higher rate environment. So you are seeing that pull back a little bit. We are seeing, though, plenty of volume to look at, but just isn't meeting our pricing parameters. I think we've seen as rates have gone up, that spread between where we wanted to be and maybe where the competition was has come in some. So I think that's a good thing and should help us with some loan growth going forward.

And then as we talked about, as Derek did, with the repricing and the liquidity pulling some things off of our balance sheet from a lower yield allow us to, I guess, narrow the gap in that pricing we're seeing out there and allow us to generate, but just don't feel like at those 8% to 12% for a little bit, I think it's still going to be a little pullback in that 5% range. And we're okay with that just because we have those levers to see to pull margin up and overall yields up. So just trying to balance that tension between growth and profitability improvement. We think that around that 5% spot puts us in a nice place where we can achieve both.

David Bishop

Got it. And then you mentioned the ability to maintain the margin, and obviously, the restructuring helps here. It looks like looking at the -- I appreciate all the color in the slide deck related to the repricing. It looks like you guys are in a good position to continue to expand the margin into '27. Is that sort of your expectation you see a continued move up irrespective of what purchase accounting accretion does?

T. Fountain

Yes. I think our core margin without that accretion will continue to modestly move up just because of the structure of the balance sheet, getting that repricing. I think there's an opportunity there and even where current loan rates are relative to where we'll have stuff roll off, we should -- and even considering some increase in the deposit competition, but we feel pretty good about that core margin. And then on First Reliance and the accretion there, they're running a slightly higher margin than us already anyway. And then the ability to get that reprice, again, that helps us be able to see profitability improvement with maybe less modest loan growth than we've had in the past. And certainly feel like at some point, as we have more clarity on where long-term rates are going, I think we'll get back into the larger levels of loan growth more in that 8% to 12% range that we've -- I think, we've averaged about 12% organic growth over the last 8 years since I've been here at Colony. So we think we'll get back to that. We just don't want to do that at the expense of margin improvement until we get to a healthier margin.

David Bishop

Got it. And then I guess one final question. You noted the increase on the classified loans. Any more details you can share just in terms of that particular borrower? And it sounds like that's a pretty isolated incident, correct?

T. Fountain

Yes. Nothing that we see spilling over into other things, just kind of an isolated situation. I think it's a good project still and something that could potentially move forward. Just on some of these deals, you get to a situation where the project and the capital inputs from the borrowers didn't exactly align in the partners. And so I think over the next quarter or 2, we'll work through that and get that resolved. So we feel good about the collateral. We have multiple pieces of collateral on that, but we just got to work through that situation.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Chris Marinac with Brean Capital.

Christopher Marinac

Heath and Derek, I wanted to ask about the mortgage business real quick and just kind of your thought as a combined company. Does the external mortgage market have any sort of negative implications for the next year? Or can you kind of work around it and continue to grow at the core bank?

T. Fountain

Yes. I think in the long term, we love the mortgage business. I think it's a critical part of driving a solid community bank deposit franchise. There are just so many reasons that having a healthy mortgage business is good. Obviously, in the short term, it is a more cyclical and volatile business line, especially when you see rates move pretty quickly, which we've seen over the last several months. Having a larger combined company in mortgage gives you a better ability to ride out these rate challenges, just gives you more operating leverage, more things, more levers you can pull to manage that. And so we're working through that. We love the business in the long term. We've got a great team. The idea is we just have to manage that from an expense base so that it doesn't become a drag during times like this when it's a little tougher, but still be opportunistic for the long term.

Sometimes high rate environments are great recruiting periods for bringing on new LOs as well because they're not leaving behind a big pipeline in other places. So it's just managing that. And I think that it's -- that a larger platform just gives you more levers you can pull on that. And also First Reliance has the third-party origination platform, which is just another lever you can pull to optimize volume and expenses. So we're still very excited about that business and really think it's part of the core long term of how you build a good fee side of your business, but also how you build strong deposit base.

Christopher Marinac

That's helpful. I appreciate it. And then back to kind of your main business on loans and deposits. What do you see as sort of the deposit gathering outlook not just for Colony stand-alone, which still has a really low cost base, but also kind of combined and maybe the new opportunities that the South Carolina team brings you just on core funding in these next several quarters?

T. Fountain

Yes. Well, so I think both organizations have just a fantastic deposit base and a very similar deposit base and a really good mix of retail and commercial customers. This lower loan growth period has given us time to really focus on -- and focus our commercial bankers on deposits and deposit relationships. We certainly think that going into South Carolina and those bankers having a larger platform opens up larger lending opportunities. Those also -- that also opens up the ability to go after core operating businesses and their deposits that they may not have been able to go after before. And then I think we have an opportunity to invest as a combined company in more retail deposit growth strategies. Both companies have done a good job of growing retail deposits, but with a wider deposit base and more resources. I think investing in good technology, continue to make the deposit account opening process really smooth and easy.

And then I think another big driver that I think is a long-term driver of deposit growth when you look at the ability to add our wealth platform across South Carolina. I think our wealth team does a good job of using those relationships that they have in and outside the bank to help grow the core deposits of the bank as well. So I think there's a lot of opportunities, new opportunities in South Carolina, but then opportunities as a larger organization with more resources to invest in that consumer and commercial deposit account experience is going to improve on, I think, our treasury and what we call -- we talked about in the past, Chris, our Banking Solutions group, the ability to have a deeper treasury platform to offer merchant services, credit cards from a payment perspective, not a balance perspective. Those are all new tools for those bankers in South Carolina or enhanced tools that are helpful in going out and originating deposit business.

Christopher Marinac

Great. That's good. And then just last quick question for Derek. On the securities portfolio, I think you said 5.50% is your yield assumption. What does that imply for duration? And then also was curious if you still have that same relationship on, let's say, AFS versus held to maturity or if that might change?

Derek Shelnutt

Yes. So a couple of things there. On the 5.5% reinvest assumption, that's primarily into loans. So right now, we're looking at lending 5 years or less. And so you're looking at a lower duration compared to ultimately what we're selling out of in the securities book. So that improves our interest rate risk position, and then we'll keep some of that in short-term liquidity just with the expectation of future growth there. I will comment and say that the 5.5% reinvestment assumption is over time. It will take us a couple of quarters to redeploy those net proceeds into loans just as we kind of see deals that we like over the next few quarters. So that's kind of the long-term benchmark on the 5.5%. But the ultimate goal there is ultimately shortening the duration compared to the securities that we're selling out of.

On the HTM AFS mix, we're selling legacy Colony AFS securities. And then next week, we're bringing on First Reliance's investment securities and marking those to market. Our intent is to keep those in AFS. So really, you should see a pretty similar mix on the other side of this that we're selling out of these AFS securities coming up soon, but we're also bringing on the First Reliance side through the merger.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of David Bishop with Hovde Group.

David Bishop

Just a couple of follow-ups. I think you said you're out of the market on share repurchases with the close of the acquisition, you think you start to sort of re-up and get more active on that front?

T. Fountain

Yes. Good question, Dave. And we do expect to be active again. One of the things that improved profitability and lower growth allows you to do is have more levers you can pull on capital management. And so I think we have historically been opportunistic and we'll continue to be opportunistic if market situations give us the opportunity in pricing. But I think going forward, what we're also looking to do while we're in a period of really good profitability and a little bit lower growth is to be more systematic with our repurchases over time. And so what I think you can expect to see is some systematic repurchases each quarter and then being more opportunistic if overall macro market moves give us the opportunity to do that.

David Bishop

Got it. And then good quarter for the SBSL Group. Just curious, expectations heading into the final quarter into 2027.

T. Fountain

Yes. So the SBSL group has done a fantastic job. It's a great line of business, Darren Davis that runs that. It's one of the best leaders we have in the company and does a great job there. They've really strategically shifted that business over the last year to more traditional 7(a), more real estate based. And during that transition, we saw a little lighter production. We've seen that production pick back up. As Derek indicated, we are doing a decent amount of construction in some of those originations. So that will build up and some of those sales will come into next year, which is building a nice healthy revenue pipeline as we look at next year.

And then we've also seen -- Darren brought in some new sales management, and they've really done a great job of focusing on our bankers and our legacy markets and not just traditional SBA referral channels. And so it's been top of mind. We've seen some good increase in activity from our markets. And of course, adding South Carolina, that's just another tool that those bankers will have with a full-service SBA group that they haven't had in the past, and we think we should see activity pick up from that as well.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Heath Fountain for closing remarks.

T. Fountain

Well, thank you again to everyone for being on the call today. Thanks for your support of Colony Bankcorp. We're excited about the opportunities ahead. We're pleased with how things are progressing, and we appreciate you being on the call today. Thank you for your support.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.