Jim Ayers, chairman of FirstBank, meets with reporter Ellis Smith before a luncheon at the Hunter Museum of American Art. The parent company of FirstBank will offer stock today and begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange for the first time after an initial pricing of the banking company came in above initial projections.
FB Financial Corp. announced Thursday night it will launch its public offering of nearly 5.9 million shares at an initial price of $19 per share today for a total offering of nearly $111.8 million. The banking firm had orignally forecast an initial stock offering price between $16 and $18 per share.
The offering comes just a year after FirstBank, which began in Lexington, Tenn., and is now headquartered in Nashville, acquired Northwest Georgia Bank in Ringgold, Ga., to become one of the larger banks in metropolitan Chattanooga with $330 million in local deposits at six area branches.
In its stock offering, FB Financial noted that Northwest Georgia Bank added six branches and will accelerate FirstBank's presence in Chattanooga. Northwest Georgia, which was started 110 years ago in Ringgold, was financially struggling when FirstBank agreed to buy the bank last year.
"Including the effects of purchase accounting adjustments, we acquired net assets with a fair value of $272 million which includes a bargain purchase gain of $2.8 million, loans with a fair value of $79 million and deposits with a fair value of $246 million," FB Financial said in its initial stock offering. "We believe that this acquisition will accelerate our already planned expansion in Chattanooga by significantly augmenting our client base, increasing our brand awareness and providing us with the scale to attract leading bankers."
Across Tennessee's major metro areas and in Huntsville, Ala., FirstBank has grown to more than $2.9 billion in assets and $266 million in shareholders equity prior to today's stock offering.
A majority of today's offfering - about $65 million - will go to the sole owner of FB Financial, Jim Ayers.
Ayers bought a former Lexington bank in 1984 with just $14 million in deposits and after renaming it to FirstBank grew the institution to Tennessee's third largest bank.
The stock offering will also generate about at least $50 million and perhaps more than $62 million in equity for bank expansion and loan growth.
Under today's offering, FB Financial has granted underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 882,352 shares of common stock, at the initial public offering price of $19, which if exercised in full would result in a total offering size of $128.5 million.
The shares of common stock will trade under the ticker symbol "FBK."
J.P. Morgan, UBS Investment Bank, and Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc., are acting as the joint book-running managers for the offering, and Raymond James, Sandler O'Neill + Partners L.P., and Stephens Inc. are acting as co-managers.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.