An investment vehicle backed by a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. fund and Oaktree Capital Management LP gained court approval Thursday to buy AmericanWest Bank in Spokane, Wash., through a bankruptcy sale.
Judge Patricia C. Williams of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Spokane indicated at a hearing that she would allow the investment vehicle, SKBHC Holdings LLC, to buy the 58-branch bank from its holding company, AmericanWest Bancorp., which filed for Chapter 11 protection in October.
SKBHC is to pay $6.5 million for AmericanWest and has committed itself to pump in an additional $200 million to the bank in order to satisfy state and federal regulators that had called for the institution to recapitalize.
"We've got a good result here," Williams said in court.
The sale, which is on track to close this month, would be the largest purchase to date by SKBHC, a $750 million investment vehicle looking to acquire troubled banks.
Williams approved the deal after no other bidder came forward to challenge SKBHC's offer.
Though Columbia State Bank and a private-equity firm had expressed interest in buying AmericanWest, ultimately neither submitted an offer to the court, according to AmericanWest Bancorp. attorney Alexandra Barrage of the law firm Morrison & Foerster LLP.
Barrage asked the judge to allow the sale to close quickly, saying that any delay could prompt "immediate seizure" of the bank by state regulators.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued a directive in February ordering AmericanWest Bank to recapitalize, but authorities never put the bank into receivership.
This created the unusual circumstance of a bank's being sold out of Chapter 11. Often, bank holding companies enter bankruptcy after their bank unit, which is their primary asset, has been seized and sold by regulators.
The Federal Reserve Board, the FDIC and state regulators all consented to the deal, Barrage said.
AmericanWest Bancorp. struggled to attract investors outside Chapter 11, in part because at least $40 million of any capital commitment would have to go to pay off investors in notes tied to collateralized debt obligations.
