Group agrees to buy IndyMac, invest $1.3b
NEW YORK - A group including Steven Mnuchin of Dune Capital Management LP and firms run by hedge fund manager John Paulson and J. Christopher Flowers agreed to acquire IndyMac Bank and inject $1.3 billion in cash into the failed lender, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said.
Mnuchin's group controls IMB Management Holdings LP, a thrift holding company that includes J.C. Flowers & Co., Paulson & Co., MSD Capital LP, and Stone Point Capital, the FDIC said yesterday. The FDIC agreed a month ago to let private investor groups without bank charters bid for failing lenders after a financial crisis wiped out 25 institutions in 2008 and may threaten at least 171 more.
"This is really in some respects, the first step toward finding a bottom for a lot of these assets," said Michael Yoshikami, the president of YCMNet Advisors in Walnut Creek, Calif.
Mnuchin, 46, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive vice president who worked on the purchase, will become chairman and chief executive of IndyMac's new holding company, the agency said. Mnuchin founded Dune with former colleagues from Goldman Sachs, David Neidich, and Chip Seelig after a stint at billionaire George Soros's hedge fund. Dune's investments included stakes in Viacom Inc.'s DreamWorks LLC film library, and the 802-room Hyatt Regency hotel in San Francisco.
"We will inject significant private capital into IndyMac so that it can once again effectively serve its customers and communities," Mnuchin said in a statement yesterday.
IndyMac and the FDIC signed a letter of intent for the transaction, which the agency fact sheet valued at about $13.9 billion. IMB will inject about $1.3 billion in cash into the new company when the deal closes, this month or in January, the agency said. 