BankUnited Prices Secondary Offering at Slight Discount

BankUnited (BKU) in Miami Lakes, Fla., has priced a planned secondary offering by its biggest investors.

A group of shareholders will sell 19.6 million shares at $25.25 each, a discount of roughly 3% from the stock's closing price Thursday. Gross proceeds will total about $495 million.  Morgan Stanley and BofA Merrill Lynch, the underwriters of the offering,  will have the option to buy an additional 2.9 million valued at roughly $72.4 million.

BankUnited announced Wednesday that its private equity backers, along with other major investors such as Chairman and Chief Executive John A. Kanas, were collectively selling about 20% of the total equity in the company. The offering would give BankUnited a more traditional ownership structure and make it easier for it to pursue acquisitions.

The company's three biggest private equity investors — Blackstone, Carlyle, and W.L. Ross — will each sell 4.8 million shares, or 35% of each company's total stake, netting them $121 million each at the offering price.  Another investor, Centerbridge Partners, will sell nearly 3.8 million shares, or over $95 million worth of stock.

Kanas plans to sell 800,000 shares, valued at about $20.2 million at the offering price. Other participants include BankUnited executive John Bohlsen, who is selling $8.8 million worth of stock, and two affiliates of Richard LeFrak, a BankUnited director, that are selling $6.3 million in stock.