JPMorgan Acquires Certain WaMu Assets After Seizure; TPG Capital Takes Huge Hit

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has acquired the deposits, assets and certain liabilities of the banking operations Washington Mutual from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The deal excludes all senior unsecured debt, subordinated debt and preferred stock of Washington Mutual’s banks as well as the assets and liabilities of the banks’ parent holding company or the holding company’s non-bank units. JPMorgan is making a payment of $1.9 billion to the FDIC as part of the deal.

The agreement follows WaMu’s seizure by the government, a move that represents the largest bank failure in U.S. history.

WaMu’s common shares plunged 90.3 percent to 16 cents each in morning trades on Friday.

The disintegration of WaMu is a big blow for private equity firm TPG Capital, which led a $7 billion financing for WaMu in April. TPG put up $1.35 billion of its own funds in the financing. It acted as the anchor investor in the deal, which called for the sale of about 176 million common shares at $8.75 each. An investment vehicle managed by TPG bought $2 billion in WaMu securities at the time. The deal also included the issuance of about 55,000 shares of convertible preferred stock that carried a purchase price and liquidation preference of $100,000 per share.

At the time of the transaction, WaMu shares were trading for above $10 each.