Equity Bank holding company announces initial public offering

Equity Bancshares, the Wichita-based holding company for Equity Bank, announced Monday the launching of an initial public offering of nearly 1.8 million shares of its stock, according to a news release.

Equity, which announced last month its intention to go public, will make 1.79 million shares of its Class A common stock available at an anticipated offering price of between $22 and $24 per share, according to the release. The company has applied to list its stock on the NASDAQ market under the ticker symbol “EQBK.”

A perspectus on the offering will be made available through the firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc., which is acting as a book-running manager for the offering. A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective, according to the release.

The stock is expected to premiere on the NASDAQ on Nov. 11. According to filings made with the exchanges commission, Equity plans to use close to half of the approximately $30 million it expects to be raised for “organic growth,” including possible future acquisitions of other banks or financial institutions.

Established in 2003, Equity has close to $1.5 billion in assets with more than two dozen branches in Kansas and Missouri, including four in the Wichita area. Equity was started by a group of investors who acquired the former National Bank of Andover.

The move to go public causes Equity to stand out within the Kansas banking landscape — Capitol Federal Financial in Topeka, Blue Valley Ban Corp. in Overland Park and Landmark Bancorp in Manhattan are among the few publicly traded commercial bank and thrift holding companies based in Kansas.

This story was originally published November 2, 2015 at 11:13 AM with the headline "Equity Bank holding company announces initial public offering."