Central Bancompany’s IPO interest has advantages, challenges

The interest expressed by Jefferson City-based Central Bancompany Inc. (OTC: CBCY) to go public by filing paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this month has several advantages but is not without risks, officials say.

Central Bancompany, which does business as The Central Trust Bank and operates locally – including a dozen Springfield branches – as Central Bank of the Ozarks, made an Oct. 10 SEC filing to list shares on the Nasdaq. The filing states that the initial public offering would be conducted under the ticker symbol CBC “as soon as practicable after the registration statement is declared effective.” The filing contains no specific launch date for the IPO, nor approximate share prices to be sought.

“Under federal securities laws, the company is in a ‘quiet period,’ and we cannot provide any comment at this time,” said Charlie Martin, corporate development officer with Central Bancompany, via email.

Jeff Jones, associate dean of the Department of Finance, Economics and Risk Management at Missouri State University, said if a company is pursuing a public offering of shares, it will be prohibited from making certain kinds of announcements, whether they are good or bad.

“You basically put together a prospectus that is floated to potential investors, but they don’t want a company going out and making a bunch of announcements during the quiet period,” Jones said.

Both Jones and Jackson Hataway, president and CEO of the Missouri Bankers Association, declined to speculate on reasons why Central Bancompany is interested in going public.

However, Hataway said one advantage for a bank to go public is an ability to be better set up for merger and acquisition activity.

“If you have the ability to generate a bunch of either revenue from the IPO or you open up more available stock or have more options available for trading, then if you want to go out and make an acquisition or look carefully at other markets, then you just have more resources at your disposal,” he said, adding when banks go public they may think more aggressively about M&A activity and what their resource needs will be. “It’s usually when you’re looking at a fairly significant acquisition to expand your footprint or enter a new market.” 

A Central Bancompany news release outlining the IPO plans indicates its board approved a 50-for-1 stock split in the form of a stock dividend to be paid to shareholders of record as of Oct. 20.

According to the SEC filing, Central Bancompany had 156 branches, $19.1 billion in assets and $14.8 billion in deposits as of June 30. The filing additionally lists net income of $186.2 million for the first six months of 2025, compared with $171.3 million in the same period of 2024.

Hataway said Missouri also has a lot of state-chartered banks, which he speculated could also contribute to not many pursuing IPOs. Missouri ranked fourth in the nation in the number of state-chartered banks with 193 regulated by the Missouri Division of Finance as of June 2024, according to government data.

“The other component is the IPO market wasn’t the most active over the past four or five years or so,” he said.

“Those two factors together, I think, have kept people from jumping in feet first to any kind of initial public offering.”

Advantages and challenges
Hataway said going public can also give the bank easier access to more capital and may help if there’s uncertainty on long-term shareholder succession planning.

“It you have a closely held bank and not a lot of clarity on what comes next, it can make complete sense in that scenario to try and make an IPO happen,” he said.

A local publicly traded company in the banking industry is Great Southern Bancorp Inc. (Nasdaq: GSBC), the Springfield-based operator of Great Southern Bank. Joe Turner is its president and CEO, a leadership role he assumed in 1999 from his father, William “Bill” Turner. Great Southern’s decision to go public in 1989 preceded Joe Turner’s arrival at the bank by two years, according to company officials.

However, he said the decision has since allowed many of its employees, customers and community members the opportunity to own stock in Great Southern over the last 36 years.

“This structure has allowed the success of the company to be shared with those who most closely support it, as well as providing a more liquid form of investment with a stock that can be traded easily through national exchanges,” Turner said via email. “Though each shareholder’s story is different, we’re proud to know our strong returns have supported the prosperity of families across our communities and beyond. Being a publicly traded company also may make it easier to issue capital or debt into a broader market.”

The company recently reported third-quarter net income of $17.8 million, an increase from $16.5 million a year earlier, according to a news release. Diluted share earnings rose to $1.56 from $1.41 year over year.

As of Sept. 30, Great Southern had $5.7 billion in assets and $4.5 billion in deposits, with 89 branches and several commercial lending offices. It also remains No. 1 in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s annual summary of deposits report, as the company held $2.31 billion, or 13.45% of market, in the Springfield metropolitan statistical area as of June 30. Guaranty Bank was in second place on the report at 9.88%, followed by Central Bank at 8.58%.

“While short-term price volatility is inherent with all public companies, we are incredibly proud of the long-term success of our stock since going public in 1989,” Turner said of the GSBC shares, which finished Oct. 22 trading at $57.78 and had a 52-week range of $47.57 to $68.02 per share.

Turner said assuming the reinvestment of dividends, GSBC stock as of Oct. 20 has realized a total return of approximately 20,400%.

“To put that in perspective, a $1,000 investment in Great Southern’s stock in 1989 would be worth over $204,000 today,” he said.

MSU’s Jones said the downside to being a publicly traded company “makes you fall under a higher level of regulation and scrutiny,” as they have to file more reports with the SEC. Still, he said banks are already subject to a higher level of regulation, as they are regularly examined by major regulatory entities such as the Federal Reserve or FDIC.

“Then also you’re giving up some of your ownership,” he said. “So, if you were a closely held company before and you had control, you may not after the IPO.”

Turner agreed there is an increased layer of reporting, diligence and oversight. Still, he doesn’t classify that as a challenge.

“Instead, it’s an opportunity to further communicate our strategy and results on a regular cadence,” he said.