Sandpoint-based Intermountain Community Bancorp, whose banking units operate 14 branches, including one here, has launched a $10 million offering of common stock to fuel future growth.


Late last month, the bank holding company set the price for the offering at $17 a share, and said the sale would run from about Nov. 2 to Dec. 1. Although the maximum total offering amount is about $10 million, it reserved the right to issue up to another $2 million in stock.


Intermountain said priority in the offering will be given to current shareholders and customers of its Panhandle State Bank subsidiary and that banks two other banking divisions, Intermountain Community Bank and Magic Valley Bank. The company scheduled a series of presentations on the offering throughout its market areas, including one in Spokane Valley earlier this week.


In its offering prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Intermountain said it would use about $1 million of the net proceeds for general corporate purposes, and the remainder to fund the growth of Panhandle State Bank.


We regularly explore opportunities for potential acquisitions of financial institutions and de novo expansion, it said. With the exception of a new branch in Twin Falls, Idaho, slated to open in the first half of 2006, it said it currently has no other agreements or definite plans for such acquisitions or expansion.


Intermountain, which listed total assets of about $731 million as of Sept. 30, operates six branches under the Panhandle name, all in North Idaho. The banks Intermountain Community Bank division operates four branches in southwest Idaho, as well as a branch in Spokane Valley and one in Ontario, Ore. Its Magic Valley Bank division operates one branch each in Twin Falls and Gooding, Idaho.


The company was launched in 1981 to serve Bonner County, but has grown rapidly in recent years into other parts of Idaho, as well as into Oregon and Washington, partly through acquisitions. It entered the Spokane-area market with a single branch in June.


Separately, the bank holding company late last month reported third-quarter net income of about $2 million, or 33 cents a share, up about 63 percent from $1.3 million, or 23 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter.


For the first nine months of the year, net interest income after loan-loss provisions jumped 53 percent to $19.7 million, compared with the same period last year.


The companys assets grew about 51 percent in the 12 months ended Sept. 30. Although that increase includes the acquisition of Snake River Bancorp. late last year, the company says that two-thirds of the asset growth was due to growth within its other markets.


Deposits as of Sept. 30 totaled $420.2 million, up 47 percent from a year earlier, and loans totaled $537.9 million, up 61 percent from a year earlier.


Those numbers also were boosted partly by the acquisition of Snake River Bancorp.


The companys stock is traded on the over-the-counter bulletin board system under the symbol IMCB.