A club led by John Kanas has prevailed in the BankUnited sweepstakes. His bidding groups included Carlyle Group, Blackstone Group, Centerbridge Capital Partners and WL Ross, among others. Another includes Goldman Sachs and Toronto-Dominion Bank. J.C. Flowers may also be interested. The FDIC brokered the deal, which calls for the buyers to provide $900 million of capital to assume $12.7 billion in assets and $8.3 billion in deposits, according to the New York Times.

An item in Business Week suggests that regulatory issues may have slowed the process of finding a buyer for the big Florida-based bank. The club approach might have helped private equity firms to get around a rule that requires owners of more than 25 percent to be bank holding companies. But regulators have also shown some flexibility, the item notes. The Office of Thrift Supervision was willing to let a private equity firm buy a controlling stake in a Michigan thrift without becoming a holding company; instead, it blessed a silo approach that separated the bank from the firm's other assets. 

For more:
- here's the New York Times article
- here's the Business Week  item

Related Article:
Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, Wilbur Ross to buy bank