The company that now owns Beacon Community Bank made more money in the third quarter than a year earlier, as it got ready to fold in the Charleston-area lender.
Coastal Carolina Bancshares Inc., the parent of Coastal Carolina National Bank, reported net income of $3.21 million, or 42 cents per diluted share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, according to its Oct. 29 earnings release. A year earlier it earned $2.96 million, or 47 cents a share. That is an 8% increase in profit.
Leaving out the after-tax cost of merger expenses, the company earned $3.43 million, or 45 cents a share, up 16%. Net income for the first nine months of 2026 rose 20%, to $9.41 million.
The figures do not include Beacon. The two companies completed their merger of equals Oct. 1, after the quarter ended, so the release covers Coastal on its own.
“The third quarter marked an important period for our Company,” President and CEO Laurence S. Bolchoz Jr. said in the release. “We generated solid earnings, continued to expand the loan portfolio, and maintained the deposit growth achieved during the first half of the year, while preparing for the completion of our merger with Beacon Holding Company, Inc.”
A Charleston headquarters
When the deal closed, Coastal said the holding company is “now headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina.” The bank itself is still described as Myrtle Beach-based. The Oct. 29 earnings release carried a Myrtle Beach dateline, and the company’s investor relations page still lists a Myrtle Beach corporate office. Beacon’s locations now operate as “Beacon Community Bank, a division of Coastal Carolina National Bank,” and the combined bank’s branch list includes offices in Mount Pleasant, Charleston, Daniel Island and North Charleston, according to the company.
In early 2027, Beacon’s core systems are scheduled to be converted to Coastal’s, and the combined bank will be renamed Beacon Bank N.A., the company said. The holding company’s shares still trade under the symbol CCNB.
On a pro forma basis, the combined company has about $2.3 billion in total assets, $2.0 billion in deposits and $1.8 billion in loans, with 16 branches and a loan production office from Charleston to Wilmington, N.C., and inland to the Upstate, according to the release.
Charleston Business Report profiled Bolchoz after the merger closed.
Inside the quarter
Coastal had $1.355 billion in total assets on Sept. 30, up 6% from the end of 2025. Deposits were flat for the quarter at $1.214 billion but up $67 million for the year. Net loans grew $17 million in the quarter, to $1.004 billion.
Owner-occupied commercial real estate, construction and land development, and one-to-four family home loans led the year’s loan growth, rising $20 million, $15 million and $12 million, respectively. Loans on non-owner-occupied commercial real estate fell $15 million.
Net interest income rose 14% from a year earlier, to $11.2 million. But the bank’s net interest margin, the gap between what it earns on loans and investments and what it pays for funding, slipped to 3.50% from 3.59% in the second quarter. The cost of interest-bearing deposits rose to 2.71% from 2.59%, the company said.
Net charge-offs were about $1.46 million, all tied to one loan relationship. “We do not believe this isolated matter is indicative of broad-based deterioration within the portfolio,” Bolchoz said in the release. Nonaccrual loans totaled $1.2 million, or 0.13% of total loans, and the bank held no foreclosed real estate at quarter’s end. It set aside $680,000 for credit losses in the quarter.
Noninterest expense rose to $7.5 million from $6.3 million a year earlier, which the company attributed mainly to merger costs and investments in staff, technology and infrastructure. Merger-related expenses in the quarter were about $200,000.
The bank remained well capitalized, with a leverage ratio of 9.28%, according to the release.
Another local bank’s quarter
The Bank of South Carolina Corp., a Charleston-based holding company whose bank has offices in Charleston, North Charleston, Summerville, Mount Pleasant, James Island and West Ashley, also reported higher profit this month. It said Oct. 8 that it earned $2.42 million in the third quarter, up 13% from a year earlier, with a net interest margin of 4.85%.
President and CEO Eugene H. Walpole IV said in that release that the bank continues “to see steady loan demand in our local markets.”
For Coastal, the next step is the integration.
“With the transaction now complete, we are focused on executing a thoughtful integration, supporting our customers and employees through the transition, and realizing the long-term opportunities of the combined organization,” Bolchoz said.
