BankUnited rises from dead in successful IPO (BKU)

Florida's largest financial institution, BankUnited

started crumbling in the wake of the subprime mortgage collapse in 2007. It would eventually be seized by regulators and sold to a group of private investors in May 2009. All told, the collapse cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. $5.7 billion, according to the

. That's the second most costly bank failure to come out of the housing crisis, putting it behind only IndyMac. Two years later, BankUnited is profitable with $11 billion in assets and more than 80 branch locations in 13 Florida counties. It's also looking to expand rapidly through acquisitions in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and New York. "We believe there will be a substantial consolidation of this industry and lots of institutions transforming themselves into a smaller number in the Southeast,'' Chief Executive John Kanas told the Herald. "And we are an obvious candidate to be a consolidator, starting today.'' BankUnited's shares, which trade under ticker "BKU", were up more than 5 percent in their first day of trading on Friday. The bank's appeal for investors likely lies in its CEO Kanas who has a reputation for building small banks into regional players as he did during the 1990s at North Fork, a Long Island, N.Y. thrift that he would eventually sell to Capital One Financial Corp.

for some $185 million, according to the

. As at North Fork, Kanas' strategy has the Big Apple playing a big role in BankUnited's future. "There are lots of connections between New York City and Miami," Kanas tells

. "Obviously, lots of our customers share residences in both locations. Many of them have business in both locations. So there's great synergy between New York and southern Florida and we aim to take advantage of that opportunity." BankUnited plans to begin its expansion into New York in August of 2012. If the move proves successful, we might be witnessing the birth of another East Coast banking superpower ripe for a takeover.