FORT WORTH, Texas – OmniAmerican Bank, the one-time credit union chartered as Carswell (Air Force Base) CU that had to fight NCUA in court to convert to a bank, raised $119 million this week in an initial public offering.
The IPO comes four years after the $1 billion credit union, then known as OmniAmerican CU, converted to a mutual savings bank. Initial shares were reserved for depositors in the bank going back to March 31, 2008, 27 months after the credit union conversion.
"This is kind of the culmination of a process that started more than four years ago," said Tim Carter, CEO of the bank. "We are really pleased that tomorrow we’re going to be trading on the NASDAQ."
The IPO was originally planned to take place in January 2007, around the same time another $1 billion Texas credit union convert, Community CU (now ViewPoint Bank), went public, but was delayed by the death of OmniAmerican’s long-time CEO Larry Duckworth in February 2007. Both credit unions had to fight their way out of a credit union charter when NCUA tried to invalidate their respective members’ votes to convert, only to have a federal judge overrule NCUA and allow the charter switches to banks.
Omni said it sold 11.9 million common shares at $10 apiece in the IPO.
Omni is at least the 20th credit union convert to sell shares to the public.
