Westrock Again Tops Placement List

Westrock Coffee CEO Scott Ford (Photo provided by Westrock Coffee)

The number of private placements offered by Arkansas companies rebounded slightly in 2024 after falling off a cliff in 2023.

This week’s list ranks 66 offerings reported to the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission during the calendar year, although a handful actually began the offerings in late 2023. The list is ranked by the dollar amount invested — or, in a few cases, loaned — and that can be very different from the amount offered. Seven offerings that listed no sales are not included in the list.

For the second year in a row, Westrock Coffee Co. of Little Rock is at the top of the list, with a debt offering of $72 million. In August 2023, Westrock raised $118.8 million in an equity offering, by far the largest private placement of that year. Its common stock had begun trading publicly on the Nasdaq exchange a year earlier through a merger with Riverview Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

Other familiar entities are on the list. No. 2 is Nola PharmaHoldings LLC, a new company with the same Little Rock address and manager, Alex T. Gray, as multiple other cannabis businesses under the Good Day Farm umbrella. No. 3 is CG Core Value Fund LP, a new pooled investment fund associated with Circumference Group of Little Rock.

The most prolific user of private placements remains AcreTrader Inc. of Fayetteville, which rounds up investors to buy, sell and lease farmland. It registered 13 private placements in 2024, the same number as in 2023 but totaling just $24.4 million, compared with $34 million in 2023. In 2022, AcreTrader sold more than $125 million through 41 offerings.

Six commercial banking companies made use of private placements in 2024, four of them registered in December:

► First Community Bancshares Inc. of Batesville, the parent of First Community Bank, had raised $23.3 million of a $30 million offering as of Dec. 23.

► Central Banchares Inc., the newly formed holding company for Central Bank of Little Rock, placed $20 million in debt through an offering between Dec. 20 and Dec. 26.

► Oak Tree Financial Corp. Inc. of Rogers raised almost $10.7 million of a $20 million equity offering from 55 investors in December for its announced $10.1 million acquisition of Riverside Bank of Sparkman, which closed on Jan. 3. (See Whispers, Page 3.)

► FNBC Bancorp Inc. of Ash Flat, parent company of FNBC Bank, placed $7.25 million in debt with a single lender on Nov. 27.

The two earlier bank placements were:

► White River Bancshares Inc. of Fayetteville, holding company for Signature Bank of Arkansas, raised $12.5 million in equity from 22 investors between April 30 and May 13.

► Drew Bancshares Inc. of Monticello raised $4.8 million in equity from 55 investors between June 21 and July 5. June 21 was the day that Drew Bancshares’ subsidiary Commercial Bank & Trust of Monticello absorbed First State Bank of Warren. Both were majority owned by the Ryburn family.