BankUnited's Kanas: Confident Herald Buy Will Proceed
July 19 2011 - 5:52PM
Dow Jones News
BankUnited Inc. (BKU) Chairman and Chief Executive John Kanas
said Tuesday he is confident the Florida bank's acquisition of
Herald National Bank (HNB) of New York will proceed despite a
challenge from Capital One Financial Corp. (COF).
McLean, Va.-based Capital One filed suit in federal court in
Virginia earlier this month, alleging Kanas and John Bohlsen,
BankUnited's chief lending officer, violated a noncompete
agreement. Both had been executives with Capital One before joining
BankUnited.
Bohlsen and Kanas "have been fully compliant" with the
obligations set forth in the separation agreement, Kanas said in
his statement Tuesday. "The Herald transaction has been structured
to fall squarely within an explicit exception to the non-compete
provisions in our agreements."
"We are very confident ... we will prevail in this lawsuit and
that our proposed transaction with Herald and our expansion
strategy in the Northeast will proceed as planned," Kanas said.
"We fully support legitimate competition in the banking
industry, but we expect non-compete agreements negotiated in good
faith to be honored in full," a Capital One spokeswoman said
earlier this month. On Tuesday, the bank declined to comment
further.
Kanas and Bohlsen joined Capital One when the bank in 2006
bought their employer North Fork Bancorp, which Kanas served as
chairman and chief executive.
Kanas led a group of private-equity investors who bought
BankUnited in 2009, after it failed and was auctioned off by the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
-By Matthias Rieker, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2471;
matthias.rieker@dowjones.com
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