Open House
Bobby Lowder, Colonial BancGroup Inc.'s chief executive and chairman, is trying to sell more than a minority stake in his company.Mr. Lowder has listed a 10,000-square-foot home in Aspen, Colo., for $23.5 million. His wife, Charlotte, is listed as the owner of the seven-bedroom house, which was bought in December 2006 for $20 million.
An online listing for the property touts its "tremendous views" of surrounding mountains and "gorgeous landscaping with stream and waterfalls." Also, "custom furnishings throughout give the residence a sense of grandeur."
Mr. Lowder and his $26 billion-asset Montgomery, Ala., company have come under fire from investors after they learned late last month that its receipt of Troubled Asset Relief Program funds is contingent on raising $300 million in private equity.
Mr. Lowder has taken his lumps as a Colonial shareholder. In April he paid about $8 million for 1 million shares, which are now worth roughly $400,000.
Burgess to Sandler
Bill Burgess, a 10-year veteran of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., has joined Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP's Chicago office as a managing director.Mr. Burgess, 38, will focus on banking and insurance companies with market capitalizations of $1 billion or less.
"If you think about coverage of banks that size, there is no one in the industry better than Sandler," said Mr. Burgess, who joined Goldman in 1998 and was most recently a managing director.
At Goldman, he advised more than 35 publicly traded financial services firms, including Fifth Third Bancorp in its purchase of First Charter Corp. last year and U.S. Bancorp in its sale to Firstar Corp. in 2001.
Anthony on Board
Richard Anthony, the chairman and chief executive at Synovus Financial Corp., has joined the board of the Financial Services Roundtable.Mr. Anthony said Thursday in a press release announcing his two-year appointment that he hopes to "help address some of the critical issues facing our industry and our customers during this challenging economic cycle.
As the trade group to the 100 largest financial services firms, the roundtable represents the companies that have taken the bulk of the government's investments under the Capital Purchase Program.
The $35.7 billion-asset Synovus itself accepted $968 million of funds.
It reported a fourth-quarter loss of $637 million, and like other regional banking companies, it is grappling with deteriorating credit quality.
