IndyMac sale imminent, report says

IndyMac Bancorp Inc. is close to being sold to a consortium of private-equity and hedge fund firms in a deal that will be partially financed by the federal government, people involved with the deal told The New York Times. A team of bankers from Deutsche Bank AG of Frankfurt, Germany, and Barclays Capital of London have been working with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to sell the bank, which was declared insolvent last summer and seized by federal regulators InvestmentNews Aug. 1. The team of buyers includes New York-based private-equity firms J.C. Flowers & Co. LLC and Dune Capital Management LP, and hedge fund Paulson & Co. Inc., also of New York, sources told the Times. The deal, which is in the final stages of negotiations, could be announced as early as today, the people said, cautioning that the talks could still fall apart. If a deal is consummated, it will still require approval from the federal Office of Thrift Supervision. The fall of Pasadena, Calif.-based IndyMac ranked as one of the largest bank failures in history and was later followed by the failures and fire sales at Seattle-based Washington Mutual Inc. and Wachovia Corp. of Charlotte, N.C.