Wilbur Ross’ latest PE fund didn’t actually raise $2.2 billion, report says.

Several private equity firms have lined up to invest in mortgage providers and servicers in recent weeks, suggesting more firms are eager to get back into a much maligned sector as it staggers out of the Great Recession,Buyouts reports in its March 26 edition. In less than a week, between March 9 and March 14, [...]

BB&T Corp and the TD Bank unit of Canada’s Toronto-Dominion Bank have submitted preliminary bids to buy BankUnited Inc, the Wall Street Journal reported, writes Reuters. PNC Financial Services Group Inc, considered a potential bidder for the Florida bank, did not submit an offer, the report said. The private equity owners of BankUnited include Wilbur [...]

WL Ross & Co. is buying up to 19.4% of Navigator Holdings Ltd.‘s common stock for a total of $62.5 million. Navigator Holdings provides international seaborne transportation services to producers, traders and consumers of liquefied petroleum gas, petrochemical gases and ammonia.

Amalgamated Bank has begun to go to market with a unified financing program for buyout sponsors that includes both cash flow lending and asset-based loans, the New York labor bank plans to announce on Tuesday. “Now I feel confident we have the underwriting and the account management capability” to serve both groups of borrowers, Robert [...]

Kennedy Wilson Holdings Inc., an international real estate investment and services company, said it and its institutional partners have agreed to buy a loan portfolio from Bank of Ireland for $1.8 billion, Reuters reported Monday. In July this year, the Irish government halved its stake in Bank of Ireland. Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings, buyout firm WL Ross & Co., Fidelity Investments, investment firm The Capital Group and Kennedy Wilson were named as the investors by Bank of Ireland, Reuters wrote.

Don’t expect a couple of recent big investments of private money into the banking industry to signal a resurgence of dealmaking in the sector, market watchers say. A pair of buyout funds, WL Ross & Co. LLC and The Yucaipa Companies, have made commitments to invest $50 million apiece in Amalgamated Bank, a $4.4 billion [...]

Amalgamated Bank said Monday it expects to receive about $100 million in equity investments from two investors, WL Ross & Co. LLC and The Yucaipa Companies. Each are putting in around $50 million. Once the deal closes, which is expected in fourth quarter, Yucaipa (which is led by Ron Burkle) and WL Ross will each own approximately 20% of Amalgamated’s common stock.

Buyout shop WL Ross & Co. has increased its stake in Exco Resources by 2%, and now owns about 12% of the Dallas-based oil and gas producer, Reuters reported Monday. WL Ross is the second largest shareholder in Exco. The company recently said that Ross could not own more than 20% of outstanding shares. Exco has been a takeover target since last fall, when oilman T. Boone Pickens and other investors bid $4.36 billion for it, Reuters wrote.

Fresh off his firm’s first foray into the shipping business, turnaround guru Wilbur Ross (pictured) said his firm is interested in other segments of the industry as well, Buyouts reported Monday. WL Ross & Co. joined a consortium of investors that has agreed to help Diamond S Shipping buy 30 vessels that carry refined oil [...]