The Return of BankUnited Shares (BKU, BKUNA, BX)

BankUnited Inc. was one of the first public bank casualties in the financial meltdown.  Filings last week show that the turnaround acquisition is coming public again, and the filing was for up to $300 million in common stock to be sold.  A stock ticker of “BKU” has been applied for at the New York Stock Exchange versus its old NASDAQ ticker of “BKUNA.”

The Florida-based bank was acquired last year by private equity firms and this is perhaps more of an expansion strategy rather than a private equity exit strategy.  Poor real estate loans and poor operations brought on the collapse and Wilbur Ross acquired the bank from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in a pre-approved ‘restructuring’ package via WL Ross & Co.  Other investors are Blackstone Group LP (NYSE: BX), Carlyle Group, and Centerbridge Partners.

Underwriters are Morgan Stanley, BofA/Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, and Goldman Sachs.

If Wilbur Ross and friends now want to make acquisitions, the bank has a currency in the form of stock that could be used rather than cash.  While it is not said what percentage will be sold by the holders, our understanding is that the current investors will unload only a fraction of their stake here rather than several other private equity post-M&A IPOs that look more like an exodus after they picked the carcass, leveraged the books, and took a huge dividend.

BankUnited had $11.2 billion of assets and was profitable during the first half of the year.  The bank had almost 80 branches as of June 30 with a focus on small and medium-sized businesses and consumers.

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JON C. OGG