Community Bancorp planning IPO

Kevin Rademacher

Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2004 | 11:05 a.m.

Amid the positive buzz of a successful stock offering for Las Vegas-based Valley Bancorp, a second local bank is preparing to go public.

Community Bancorp late last month filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission detailing its intentions for an initial public stock offering.

Community Bancorp, founded in 1995, operates five Community Bank of Nevada branches in the Las Vegas Valley. As of June 30, the bank had total assets of $577 million, loans of $338 million and total deposits of $526 million, the company's SEC filings said.

The filing also pointed to a possible regional expansion plan for Community Bank which could include acquisition strategies.

"We plan to use the net proceeds from this offering for expansion purposes in the greater Las Vegas area or similar high growth markets in Arizona and California," the company's SEC filing said. "We expect to explore opportunities for, and engage in discussion relating to potential acquisitions of financial institutions and related businesses in the greater Las Vegas area market and similar high growth markets outside the state.

"Additionally, we may review other high growth markets to determine the feasibility of establishing additional subsidiary banks if acquisitions in such markets are not feasible."

The market appears to be ripe for Las Vegas banks. On Sept. 23 Valley Bank offered 925,000 shares on the Nasdaq National Market -- the same market on which Community Bank is seeking to be traded. Valley had an initial price of $18 a share, but it was trading at $23.50 when its trading opened in mid-morning.

Valley stock was trading at $24.52 in early trading this morning.