Equity Bancshares Gears Up for IPO With New Pricing Terms

By Chris Lange Updated Jan 13, 5:40PM EST · Published Nov 2, 10:20AM EST

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Equity Bancshares Gears Up for IPO With New Pricing Terms — © Thinkstock

Equity Bancshares has filed an amended S-1 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its initial public offering (IPO). The bank expects to price its 1.79 million of its Class A shares in the range of $22 to $24, with an overallotment option for an additional 268,500 shares. At the maximum price, the entire offering is valued up to $49.4 million. The company intends to list on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol EQBK.

The underwriters for this offering are Keefe Bruyette & Woods, Stephens and Sandler O’Neill.

This bank holding company is headquartered in Wichita, Kan. The wholly owned banking subsidiary, Equity Bank, provides a broad range of financial services primarily to businesses and business owners, as well as individuals, through a network of 25 full-service branches located in Kansas and Missouri. As of June 30, 2015, the company had, on a consolidated basis, total assets of $1.4 billion, total deposits of $1.0 billion, total loans of $828.5 million (net of allowances) and total stockholders’ equity of $121.7 million. It has been profitable nine out of the past 10 years and each of the past five years.

Equity Bancshares’ principal objective is to increase stockholder value and generate consistent earnings growth by expanding commercial banking franchise both organically and through strategic acquisitions. The company strives to provide an enhanced banking experience for its customers by providing them with a comprehensive suite of sophisticated banking products and services tailored to meet their needs, while delivering the high-quality, relationship-based customer service of a community bank.

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In the filing the bank commented on its operations:

We have grown our loan portfolio from $280.5 million as of December 31, 2010 to $828.5 million as of June 30, 2015 (net of allowances). Our loan portfolio composition was 74.8% commercial and 25.2% 1-4 family and other as of June 30, 2015, and within our commercial loan portfolio, 61.2% of such loans were commercial real estate loans and 38.8% of such loans were commercial and industrial loans. Our repositioning efforts following the acquisition of First Community helped expand our commercial loan portfolio (net of allowances) from 72.0% of our loan portfolio as of December 31, 2012 to 74.8% of our loan portfolio as of June 30, 2015. …

We have grown our deposits from $374.1 million at December 31, 2010 to $1.0 billion at June 30, 2015. Our repositioning efforts following the acquisition of First Community helped improve our deposit mix by increasing our Signature Deposits from 59.7% of our total deposits as of December 31, 2012 to 62.9% of our total deposits as of June 30, 2015. The improvement in our deposit mix as well as the current rate environment have helped lower our cost of interest-bearing deposits from 83 basis points at December 31, 2012 to 45 basis points at June 30, 2015.

About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.