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Banking & Finance

Live Oak Again Files Intent To Go Public

By Jenny Callison, posted Jun 22, 2015
Update: This version of the story includes more details on how potential IPO proceeds would be used and additional information about LOB's revenues and lending.

Live Oak Bank, which last year explored the option of becoming a public corporation, has again filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a possible initial public offering of its common stock, according to a news release Monday from the bank.

The company aims to raise more than $86.2 million, according to the filings to the SEC, which was submitted by Live Oak Bancshares Inc., the parent company and registered bank holding company of Live Oak Banking Company.

The number of shares to be sold in the proposed IPO and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined, the release stated. The proposed stock would be listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LOB, according to the plan.

Live Oak has gone down the public offering path before. In April of last year, Live Oak Bancshares Inc. filed a Form S-1 announcing its intention at that time to start the IPO process.

In September, however, the company said it had “closed on a private investment from Wellington Management and will withdraw from an Initial Public Offering (IPO)," officials said then.

In the new S-1 prospectus, Live Oak officials stated they intend to use the net proceeds of the stock offering to support organic growth in its existing lending industries and expand into new industries; to develop a new online lending platform for originating loans of less than $350,000; to enhance its balance sheet; and for "general corporate purposes," including possible acquisitions of or investments in other banks.

Bank officials said in the prospectus that small-business lending holds significant potential for Live Oak.

"We believe that the small business lending market is both broad and underserved by traditional banks. Non-bank lenders have exposed traditional banks’ inability to effectively service the small business customer by utilizing technology-based platforms to increase small businesses’ access to financing," the prospectus stated, adding that since Live Oak's inception, it has used a technology-based platform as the basis for its lending process.

"To date, our average loan size is $1 million with an established origination channel for small business lending via the technology-based platform we use," the document stated.

In early 2012, Live Oak Bank spun off its proprietary banking software, creating nCino. Over the past year, according to the filing, Live Oak divested itself of its ownership of nCino, although some of the bank's directors, officers and employees own more than one-quarter of nCino's outstanding common stock and Live Oak Bank chairman and CEO James S. "Chip" Mahan III continues to serve on nCino's board.

The new lending platform, according to information in the S-1 document, will be developed in-house by Live Oak employees, some of whom formerly worked for nCino.

While it does offer deposit accounts and certificates of deposit, Live Oak Bank is focused primarily on providing Small Business Administration-guaranteed loans to businesses within specified industries. Within the past six months, the bank has added the wine and craft beverage, hotels and self-storage verticals to its list.

In addition to Mahan, officers of Live Oak Bancshares, according to the  prospectus, are William L. "Lee" Williams III, vice chairman and director; Neil Underwood, president and director; David Lucht, chief risk officer and director; and S. Brett Caines, chief finance officer.

Other directors are William Cameron, Diane Glossman, Glen Hoffsis, Howard Landis III, Milton Petty and Jerald Pullins.

Information in this prospectus shows that Live Oak Bancshares' total assets were over $723 million as of March 31 as compared with $489.7 million at the same point in 2014.

Loan production has grown significantly, the document shows. Live Oak logged just over $41 million in loans in its one vertical - veterinary practices - at the end of 2007. Seven years later, lending had expanded to seven verticals and loan production had grown to more than $848 million.

Net income for the company (net of non-recurring income and expenses) was about $13.6 million at the end of 2014, compared with $8.8 million at the end of 2011.
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