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 The beleaguered banking industry appears to have taken enough of a beating that distressed investing specialist Wilbur Ross is throwing his hat into the ring. According to CNN Money, Ross' firm is still actively searching for a depository institution to buy. "We will end up with a bank, there is no doubt about that," the chairman and CEO of WL Ross & Co. said in an interview Tuesday.
Ross also said that the government's bank bailout set back his purchase plans by six to 12 months.
Ross has publicly said he was looking at banks since April 2008, and he is already deep into the financial services companies, having bought the mortgage-servicing unit of bankrupt American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. for $435 million and Option One Mortgage Corp. mortgage-servicing unit once owned by H&R Block Inc. for $1.3 billion. Although Ross will move cautiously as he seeks to avoid the same fate as TPG Capital with its investment in Washington Mutual Inc., momentum appears to be building for more capital to move into the banking sector this year. In late 2008, an affiliate of MatlinPatterson Global Advisers LLC paid $250 million for a 70% stake in Flagstar Bancorp Inc. Meanwhile fellow private equity player J. Christopher Flowers is also looking at purchasing a regional U.S. bank as are several insurance companies who have all applied to the Office of Thrift Supervision to become thrift holding companies to buy other banks and apply for federal rescue money. According to The Wall Street Journal, other recent applicants include Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., Genworth Financial Inc. and Protective Life Corp., which has an agreement to buy Bonifay Holding Co. in Bonifay, Fla. - George White See CNN story See The Deal.com story on Flagstar See WSJ story See The Deal's profile of Wilbur Ross' strategy Categories Deal Video
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