Blackstone, Carlyle, Ross Said to Prepare Offer for BankUnited

BankUnited, the state’s largest lender, said in an April 14 regulatory filing that the Office of Thrift Supervision had given it 15 days to sell itself or find a merger partner. The three investors would jointly buy the Coral Cables-based company, said the people, who declined to be named because the talks are private. The people didn’t specify terms of an offer for BankUnited, whose market value has fallen 93 percent to $10 million in the past year.

 

Ross, whose New York-based WL Ross & Co. has bought distressed assets and companies in the financial, automotive and steel industries, has predicted a “massive consolidation” among banks and pushed for regulators to loosen rules around bank ownership by private-equity firms. He agreed as an individual in January to buy 68.1 percent of Florida’s First Bank and Trust Co. and said he plans to use the company as a platform to buy other banking assets.

 

Representatives of New York-based Blackstone and Carlyle declined to comment. Ross didn’t reply to an e-mail seeking comment. BankUnited spokeswoman Melissa Gracey said she had no immediate comment.

 

U.S. regulators this year have seized 25 banks, equaling the number of banks shuttered in all of 2008, amid more than $1.3 trillion in financial-company losses and writedowns since 2007. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. completed the sale of IndyMac Federal Bank last month to investors including Steven Mnuchin, chairman of Dune Capital Management LP, and private equity firm J.C. Flowers & Co. Both firms are based in New York.

 

‘Substantial Doubt’

 

BankUnited reached an agreement with OTS in September to raise capital, and said in February it had “substantial doubt” about its ability to survive. About 60 percent of BankUnited’s loans are secured by property in Florida, which has among the highest U.S. foreclosure rates, according to Irvine, California- based RealtyTrac Inc.

 

The bank as of Jan. 30 is “critically undercapitalized for purposes of the prompt corrective action provisions of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act,” the company said in its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

 

Blackstone, the world’s biggest private-equity firm, last year bought a minority interest in Bayview Asset Management LP, which buys mortgage loans and mortgage-backed securities.

 

Carlyle in July invested $75 million in Boston Private Financial Holdings, a publicly traded wealth manager. The Washington-based firm last year hired UBS AG banker Olivier Sarkozy, who heads Carlyle’s group focused on financial deals.