Texas bank Green Bancorp files for IPO-Reuters

(Reuters) – Green Bancorp Inc, a Texas bank owned by three private equity firms, filed with U.S. regulators on Tuesday in an initial public offering of its common stock.

Sandler O’Neill Partners LP, Jefferies, J.P. Morgan, RBC Capital Markets and Keefe Bruyette & Woods are underwriting the IPO, the company told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in a preliminary prospectus.

The filing, which included a nominal fundraising target of about $100 million, did not reveal how many shares the company planned to sell or their expected price.

Private equity firms Friedman Fleischer & Lowe LLC, Harvest Partners LP and Pine Brook Road Partners LLC are Green Bancorp’s major shareholders.

The bank holding company said it intends to list its common stock under the symbol “GNBC” but did not specify the exchange.
Green Bancorp joins the list of financial companies that have gone public this year which include Ally Financial Inc , Spanish bank Santander SA’s auto finance unit Santander Consumer USA Holding Inc, Wilbur Ross-backed Talmer Bancorp Inc and Moelis & Co.
Green Bancorp owns Green Bank N.A., which operates in Houston, Dallas and Austin.

Net proceeds from the offering will be used for general corporate purpose and to partially fund the acquisition of SP Bancorp Inc. Green Bancorp bought SP Bancorp, which owns SharePlus Bank, in May for about $46 million.

Green Bancorp’s net interest income, the difference between what a bank earns from loans and pays out for deposits, rose about 18 percent to $15.67 million in the three months ended March 31, from a year earlier.

Net income rose about 32 percent to $3.48 million.

The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filings is used to calculate registration fees. The final size of the IPO could be different.