Wait ‘til next year for an IndyMac sale
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IndyMac Federal Bank won’t get sold this year after all.
At least that was the word from the collapsed Pasadena mortgage lender and from regulators late today following the government’s latest round of talks with a New York-based investment group.
One person close to the discussions, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about it, said it was likely the negotiators would take off Friday as well as New Year’s Day. So when could an announcement come?
“Maybe Monday,” said the source.
IndyMac spokesman Evan Wagner, who had spent the last few months declaring that a deal would be struck by year-end, was sounding a bit exasperated.
‘As of today, I can assure you the sale will occur sometime before the end of 2009,’ Wagner said.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which has operated IndyMac since the exotic-loan specialist failed in July, initially hoped for a sale by October, then pushed the deadline back.
The would-be buyers were identified this week as a partnership headed by hedge fund operator John Paulson; J. Christopher Flowers, a prominent investor in distressed banks; and Steven Mnuchin, chairman of private equity firm Dune Capital, which at one point was an unsuccessful bidder for Donald Trump’s troubled casino holdings. The investors haven’t publicly confirmed their interest in IndyMac.
FDIC and IndyMac officials wouldn’t say what was holding up the sale.
One possible snag was an effort by Fannie Mae, the giant mortgage buyer now controlled by the government, to force IndyMac or its successors to buy back dud loans the thrift had sold to Fannie Mae.
Such “put backs” have become common in the industry as loan buyers have argued that sellers misrepresented the integrity of the mortgages being sold.
--E. Scott Reckard
