Exhibit 99
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PRESS RELEASE
United Bancorp, Inc. 201 South 4th at Hickory Street, Martins Ferry, OH 43935
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Contacts: | | Scott A. Everson | | Randall M. Greenwood |
| | President and CEO | | Senior Vice President, CFO and Treasurer |
| | (740) 633-0445, ext. 6154 | | (740) 633-0445, ext. 6181 |
| | ceo@unitedbancorp.com | | cfo@unitedbancorp.com |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: | | 1:00 p.m. July 29, 2020 |
United Bancorp, Inc. Reports on its Earnings for the Six Months Ended June 30, 2020
MARTINS FERRY, OHIO ◆◆◆ United Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: UBCP) reported diluted earnings per share of $0.57 and net income of $3,254,000 for the six months ended June 30, 2020, as compared to $0.57 and $3,260,000, respectively, for the corresponding six-month period in 2019. The Company’s diluted earnings per share for the three months ended June 30, 2020 was $0.29 as compared to $0.29 for the same period in the previous year. Even though the Company achieved the same level of earnings on a year-over-year basis, year-to-date earnings were negatively impacted by a higher provision for loan losses in recognition of the unprecedented economic environment in which it is presently operating due to the global Covid-19 pandemic.
Randall M. Greenwood, Senior Vice President, CFO and Treasurer remarked, “In light of current events, we are pleased to report on our overall solid financial performance for both the most recently ended quarter and the six months ended June 30, 2020. As noted above, our Company achieved diluted earnings per share of $0.29 for the second quarter of 2020 and $0.57 year-to-date— which was the same for both corresponding periods the previous year— even though we booked an additional $1,761,000 of loan loss provision to give proper recognition to the risks posed to our Company by the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. Contributing to our achievement of a sound level of earnings this past quarter was the solid growth that our Company experienced in its earning assets on a year-over-year basis. Year-over-year, gross loans increased by $20.5 million, or 4.8%, and securities and other restricted stock increased by $30.3 million or 18.3%. This strong growth in our earning assets, along with robust loan fee generation during the first six months of this year, led to an increase in total interest income of $1.3 million, or 10.1%, over the previous year. As we have formerly disclosed, our Company started to position its balance sheet to be more liability sensitive over the course of the past year in response to the FOMC’s sudden change in the direction of monetary policy, which helped to control overall interest expense levels. Even with this change, interest expense did increase by $436,000 over last year’s level. But, with our focus on both growing assets and aggressively managing our sensitivity, our Company saw a year-over-year increase in its net interest income of $868,000 or 8.4%. As of June 30, 2020, our Company’s net interest margin was 3.52%, which compares favorably to our peer.”
Greenwood continued, “Even though we fully realize that the continuing pandemic situation has the potential to change our qualitative metrics relating to credit, we have successfully maintained overall strength and stability within our loan portfolio as of June 30, 2020. Year-over-year, our Company continues