Equity Bancshares agreed to buy Lincoln Bancorp for about $123.8 million.

Equity Bancshares is buying Lincoln Bancorp in a stock-and-cash deal designed as roughly 77.5% EQBK stock and 22.5% cash, adding 16 Iowa Lincoln Savings Bank locations. The companies expect a fourth-quarter 2026 close if shareholder, regulatory, and other conditions clear.

Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE: EQBK) and Lincoln Bancorp, parent of Lincoln Savings Bank in Reinbeck, Iowa, announced the definitive agreement on September 3, 2026. Equity’s Form 8-K says the Agreement and Plan of Reorganization was signed September 2 and unanimously approved by both boards. The filing is AccNo 0001193125-26-381051, Items 1.01, 7.01, and 9.01, accepted September 3 at 07:46:00 ET.

How the consideration is split

The agreement’s proration procedures are designed so the total merger consideration is approximately 77.5% EQBK Class A common stock and 22.5% cash. Lincoln shareholders may elect stock or cash, but individual elections can be adjusted by the proration rules. Equity also has limited discretion to increase the cash component if cash elections are oversubscribed, subject to preserving the intended tax treatment.

Based on EQBK’s September 2 spot price of $49.85, the companies valued total consideration at approximately $123.8 million. That is an announcement-date estimate, not a fixed cash price. The 8-K describes possible reductions tied to capital, merger costs and identified credit costs, plus a potential $750,000 increase if specified conditions for winding down Lincoln’s LSBX banking-as-a-service platform are met.

The Iowa footprint

Lincoln Savings Bank operates 16 locations in Iowa: Adel, Allison, Ankeny, Aplington, Cedar Falls, Clive, Des Moines, Garwin, Greene, Grinnell, Hudson, Lincoln, Nashua, Reinbeck, Tama, and Waterloo.

As of June 30, 2026, Lincoln reported $1.7 billion in assets, including $1.2 billion in loans and $1.5 billion in deposits. Equity reported $7.7 billion in assets at the same date. After adding Lincoln and adjusting to reduce excess liquidity on the combined balance sheet, Equity says the pro forma franchise would have approximately $9.1 billion in total assets.

Those balances are dated company-reported figures. The pro forma number includes a liquidity adjustment and should not be read as simple addition.

Management’s accretion estimates

Equity estimates the transaction will add approximately 5.1%, or $0.27, to its 2027 earnings per share and approximately 7.5%, or $0.42, to 2028 earnings per share, excluding one-time transaction expenses. It also estimates that tangible-book-value-per-share dilution will be earned back in less than three years.

Those are management forecasts, not realized results. They depend on the transaction closing, integration, balance-sheet actions and the assumptions behind the company’s model.

Steps still required

Subject to customary regulatory and shareholder approvals and other closing conditions, the companies expect the merger to close in the fourth quarter of 2026. The structure calls for Merger Sub to merge into Lincoln, followed by a second-step merger into Equity; Lincoln Savings Bank is then expected to merge into Equity Bank, with Equity Bank surviving.

A registration statement on Form S-4 and proxy statement/prospectus are still to come. Lincoln shareholders must approve the proposed transaction, and required regulators must clear it. The agreement also contains termination rights and conditions, including a June 30, 2027 outside date under specified circumstances.

Vote, regulators, and the Q4 window

Regulatory and Lincoln shareholder approvals, the final stock-and-cash allocation after elections and proration, any agreement adjustments to consideration, and whether management’s EPS-accretion and tangible-book earnback estimates are achieved. The expected fourth-quarter close is a target, not a completed event.