Equity Bancshares stock opens on NASDAQ

Equity Bancshares, the Wichita-based holding company for Equity Bank, announced late Tuesday the pricing for its initial public offering, according to a news release.

With trading of close to 1.9 million shares set to begin Wednesday morning, the price-per-share was set at $22.50, according to the release. The Class A common stock shares are listed on the NASDAQ market under the ticker symbol “EQBK.”

Equity, which announced in October its intention to go public, is making 1.94 million shares of its stock available, according to the release Tuesday night. A prospectus 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.

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 11, 2015 at 9:55 AM with the headline "Equity Bancshares stock opens on NASDAQ."