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Even as many other community banks have recoiled, Iberiabank Corp. lately has been on a growth tear — raising capital, buying four failed banks and picking up lending teams from competitors.
January 28 -
Its recent purchase of several failed banks and the possibility of future acquisitions of assets from FDIC bank resolutions make Iberiabank an emerging regional powerhouse.
November 19
Iberiabank Corp. in Lafayette, La., is reloading with heavier artillery.
The $9.7 billion-asset company announced plans Tuesday to raise another $300 million, plus a 15% option for underwriters.
In the past two years Iberiabank has acquired four failed banks and netted $274 million in two capital-raising efforts.
The new capital would allow it to add more than $4 billion of assets, according to Christopher Marinac, an analyst at FIG Partners LLC.
"The company is certainly thinking big," he said. "They have an appetite and they have proved they can get unique transactions done."
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Iberiabank said it plans to use the new capital for general corporate purposes, including more Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-assisted acquisitions.
Iberiabank is among a small group of banks that have successfully used new capital to do buyout deals.
"With a lot of banks I would be nervous with them raising this much capital with the hopes of getting deals done," said Andy Stapp, an analyst with B. Riley & Co. Inc. "I have more confidence that this management team will be able to pull this off and in the long run it will be in the best interest of shareholders."
Iberiabank officials would not comment.
Iberiabank has roughly doubled its assets in the past two years, largely by snapping up failed banks. Its first such acquisition was ANB Financial in Bentonville, Ark., in May 2008, followed by CapitalSouth Bank in Birmingham, Ala., in the third quarter and Orion Bank in Naples, Fla., and Century Bank in Sarasota Fla., in the fourth quarter.
Many banks have looked to the public markets for capital recently, but analysts said the markets are most receptive to institutions playing offense, like Iberiabank.
After Tuesday's announcement, shares of Iberiabank rose TK%, to $TK.
The company is likely to focus its acquisitions in the Southeast, where more banks are expected to fail, than other areas where it has said it wants to grow, like Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana, analysts said.
Target states include North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Alabama.
"Unlike some institutions that are looking to do in-market deals, I think they view it as an opportunity to expand their footprint," said Peyton Green, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach.
Green said he suspects this won't be the last time Iberiabank raises capital. "Returns for everybody are depressed right now, so they have to finance that growth," he said.
