Saving banks is an inglorious pursuit. Lose money, and everyone is baying for your blood; turn a fat profit, and risk a political or regulatory backlash. Thus Lone Star has yet to extricate itself from Korea Exchange Bank, a deal on which it once stood to garner $5bn in profit. Now is the turn of TPG, another US private equity firm, which paid $150m for a controlling stake in Shenzhen Development Bank five years ago.
拯救銀行是一項不大光彩的事情。虧了,會成爲所有人攻擊的目標;大賺一筆,又可能面臨政治或監管方面的對抗性反應。正因如此,孤星集團(Lone Star)至今仍未從南韓外換銀行(Korea Exchange Bank)交易中脫身——它當初可以從該交易中錄得50億美元的利潤。現在輪到了另一家美國私人股本公司——德州太平洋集團(TPG),該公司5年前出資1.5億美元,購入了深圳發展銀行(Shenzhen Development Bank)的控股權。