US billionaire Wilbur Ross is taking a stake in Kennedy Wilson’s $1.8bn Bank of Ireland loan portfolio.
The world-renowned turnaround financier, known as the “king of bankruptcy”, is buying into the portfolio through US investment manager Kennedy Wilson’s syndication of its “minority” equity holding.
It is understood that around 20% of the circa $1.4m (£850m) purchase price paid for the portfolio comprised equity.
Kennedy Wilson was the lead partner on the equity side, although Deutsche Bank contributed a “majority” of the cash, as well as providing funding for the deal, which closed in two phases.
The first $1.4bn chunk of the portfolio was sold in October, and the remaining $400m portion completed last week. The UK loans are backed by office, retail and residential buildings, mostly in London.
Ross is already familiar with the Bank of Ireland because his New York buyout firm, WL Ross & Co, was one of five North American investors which ploughed €1.1bn (£922m) into the bank to help it avoid full nationalisation earlier this year.
At the time of the deal, Ross, 73, said in an interview with CNBC that his firm had “great confidence that Ireland’s economy, while it’s moribund right now, will be the first in Europe to recover because they really hit the bullet”.
Ross has since been revealed as being behind a second European banking deal. His firm provided the bulk of the cash for Richard Branson’s £900m acquisition of Northern Rock.
The Northern Rock and Bank of Ireland investments follow a spate of deals to buy into crisis-hit lenders in the US, largely regional banks with a strong retail customer base.
Californian property firm Kennedy Wilson was also one of the five investors to rescue BoI, and subsequently bought the bank’s Real Estate Investment Management unit, which manages around £1.4bn of commercial property.
WL Ross & Co declined to comment.
Bridget.O’Connell@estatesgazette.com
