$1.3B INDYMAC DEAL IS REACHED

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 from the US 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 in a statement 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,” Michael Yoshikami, the president of YCMNet Advisors in Walnut Creek, Calif., said in an interview Dec. 30.

Mnuchin, 46, a former Goldman Sachs executive vice president who worked on the purchase, will become chairman and chief executive officer of IndyMac’s new holding company, the agency said. Mnuchin founded Dune with former colleagues from Goldman Sachs Group, David Neidich and Chip Seelig after a stint at billionaire George Soros’ 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.

IMB and the FDIC signed a letter of intent for the transaction, which the agency said in a fact sheet was valued at about $13.9 billion. IMB will inject about $1.3 billion in cash into the new company when the deal closes, the agency said.

FDIC spokesman David Barr declined to comment beyond their statement.

The FDIC seized IndyMac after unpaid mortgages left the lender short of cash, triggering a run by depositors that drained $1.3 billion in the 11 days before the July 11 takeover. The bank was among 25 to collapse, the highest toll since 1993.