Equity Bancshares Inc (EQBK) SEC Filing 10-K Annual report for the fiscal year ending Sunday, December 31, 2017

Equity Bancshares, Inc.                                                                      EXHIBIT 99.1

PRESS RELEASE - 1/25/2018

Equity Bancshares, Inc. Expands Organically And With Mergers In 2017,

Announces Fourth Quarter Record Income Before Merger Expense And Taxes

Completes Three Mergers, Adds Oklahoma Markets, Announces Two 2018 Mergers

WICHITA, Kansas, January 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: EQBK), (“Equity”, “we”, “us”, “our”), the Wichita-based holding company of Equity Bank, reported its unaudited results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2017, including net income allocable to common stockholders for the year of $20.6 million, or $1.62 per diluted share, and $4.3 million or $0.31 per diluted share in the fourth quarter.

Brad Elliott, Chairman and CEO of Equity, said, “Our velocity continued throughout 2017, and our footprint has been strengthened by the addition of strong community banks in Oklahoma, including Ponca City, Newkirk, and Tulsa, as well as additional Western Kansas locations.  We have focused our sales and service teams on organic growth while integrating community banks within our network, and in 2017 our loans grew by 9.0% and core deposits grew by 9.6%, not including the addition of new markets.  In 2018, we will continue our strategy of building strong commercial and consumer relationships within our communities, while offering sophisticated banking services.  We continue to maintain an active merger pipeline, while serving customers in four states with our entrepreneurial spirit.”

Equity completed its merger of Prairie State Bancshares, Inc. (“Prairie”) of Hoxie, Kansas, on March 10, 2017. The merger added three bank locations in Western Kansas.  At merger, Prairie had assets of $153.1 million, net loans of $130.1 million and total deposits of $125.4 million. Results of operations of Prairie were included in Equity’s results of operations beginning March 11, 2017.

Equity also expanded into Oklahoma during 2017, completing mergers on November 10^th with Eastman National Bancshares, Inc. (“Eastman”) of Ponca City, Oklahoma, and Cache Holdings, Inc. (“Cache”) of Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Equity now has five bank offices in Oklahoma, including bank locations in Newkirk, Ponca City, and Tulsa.  Results of operations of Eastman and Cache are included in Equity’s 2017 results subsequent to each merger.  At the time of merger, Eastman had assets of $259.7 million, net loans of $177.9 million and total deposits of $224.6 million.  Cache had assets of $324.6 million, net loans of $287.2 million and total deposits of $278.7 million.

Notable Items:

Highlights of Equity’s growth include:

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