Equity Bancshares Inc (EQBK) SEC Filing 10-Q Quarterly report for the period ending Sunday, March 31, 2019

Exhibit 99.1

Equity Bancshares, Inc.

PRESS RELEASE - 04/22/2019

Equity Bancshares, Inc. Announces First Quarter Results,

Completes Acquisition of 3 Bank Locations, Revamps Online Banking Platform,

Announces Stock Repurchase Plan and Launches Equity Trust & Wealth Management with Officers in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma

WICHITA, Kansas, April 22, 2019 (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 ended March 31, 2019, including net loss allocable to common stockholders of $4.1 million, or $0.26 per diluted share.

“In the first quarter our teams deserve credit for successfully upgrading our footprint, our customer experience, and expanding our service capabilities,” said Brad Elliott, Chairman and CEO of Equity.  “We’re pleased to add additional markets in Oklahoma that supplement our Southwest Kansas and Guymon markets.  Our Equity Trust & Wealth Management brand provides another set of financial products that appeal to customers throughout our markets, and we believe our new Equity Bank online banking solution is best in class for banking.  Throughout 2019, these key additions and improvements to our platform will yield additional opportunities for organic growth, business banking, and community banking.  As we continue to review merger opportunities, upgrades and innovations will help us become the bank of choice throughout our four states and beyond.  

“In the first quarter, we recorded a $14.5 million provision for loss against a credit relationship.  We will discuss this on our earnings call Tuesday, April 23, 2019.  However, it is important for us to convey we do not believe this represents a systemic trend; rather an isolated individual relationship which is unique to our portfolio.”

On April 18, 2019, the Board of Directors of Equity Bancshares, Inc. authorized the repurchase of up to 1,100,000 shares of our Class A Voting Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share, from time to time, beginning April 29, 2019 and concluding October 30, 2020.  The repurchase program does not obligate us to acquire a specific dollar amount or number of shares and it may be extended, modified or discontinued at any time without notice and is subject to no objection from the Federal Reserve Bank.

On February 8, 2019, Equity completed its acquisition of two bank locations in Guymon, Oklahoma, and one bank location in Cordell, Oklahoma, from MidFirst Bank of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (“MidFirst”).  The acquisition added total assets of $98.6 million, which included total loans of $6.5 million.  There were total deposits of $98.5 million assumed at the time of the acquisition.  Results of operations of the MidFirst acquisition are included in Equity’s 2019 results of operations subsequent to the acquisition.

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