Alerus Financial Corp., a Grand Forks, N.D.-based financial-services company with a growing presence in the Twin Cities, filed a registration statement for an initial public offering that, based on the registration fee, could raise $75 million.
Grand Forks banking company, with large Twin Cities presence, files for IPO
Financial-services company is raising money to accelerate expansion, add acquisitions.
August 20, 2019 at 12:11AM
The company filed the form with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. The number of shares to be offered and a proposed share price haven't been set so the final amount raised could be different. It can take five to six months after an initial registration and several amended filings before a company completes an IPO.
Shares of the company trade on an over-the-counter exchange but the company is applying to list on the Nasdaq exchange with this offering. The company's stock symbol is ALRS.
The company's main business lines include banking, retirement services, wealth management and mortgages. It has banking locations in North Dakota, Minnesota, and Phoenix, Ariz., and a retirement and benefit services business that operates nationally through offices in Michigan, Minnesota and New Hampshire.
As of June 30, the company has $2.2 billion in total assets; $27.9 billion in assets under administration; and $5.3 billion in assets under management.
The company plans to use the proceeds of the offering to strengthen its capital position and pursue a growth strategy that includes strong organic growth and strategic acquisitions.
Alerus is run by Randy Newman, a 38-year veteran with the company who has been chief executive since 1995. The company employees through an employee stock-ownership plan are the largest shareholders, owning 9.3% of existing shares.
Alerus' roots go back to 1879 when it was founded as the Bank of Grand Forks. In 2000, it changed its name to Alerus Financial. It first expanded into the Twin Cities in 2003 when it acquired a company in St. Paul, Pension Solutions Inc., that would form the foundation of its retirement business.
A business-banking office in Minnetonka opened in 2007, and Alerus has grown in the area through acquiring other businesses since, including Beacon Bank in a $56 million deal in 2016 that included three offices in the Twin Cities and two in Duluth. The Duluth offices have since been sold.
August is usually a slow period for IPO registrations, but activity picked up somewhat last week with initial registrations from 10 companies, including a proposed $1 billion offering from New York-based the We Co., which runs WeWork and other flexible work spaces; a $100 million offering from Nashville-based SmileDirectClub Inc., a provider of dental aligners; and a number of biopharmaceutical companies.
According to Renaissance Capital, a provider of pre-IPO institutional research and management of IPO-focused investment products, there have been 106 IPOs that have priced this year, down nearly 20% from the same period last year.
Joint book running managers of the Alerus offering are Raymond James & Associates and D.A. Davidson & Co., with Piper Jaffray & Co. serving as a co-manager.
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