The first time Chris Flowers invested in Tokyo-based Shinsei Bank in 2000, he went on to personally make about $1bn in what was considered one of the best deals of all time. Now a proposed merger between Shinsei and a second Japanese bank, Aozora, announced this month, represents an opportunity to salvage a disastrous second investment in Shinsei by Mr Flowers of Y200bn ($2.15bn) in 2007. The bank’s share price has since slid and losses have multiplied. The second Shinsei investment, along with a minority investment of €1.1bn in Germany’s Hypo Real Estate serves as a cautionary second chapter for Mr Flowers. Investment in financial institutions was supposed to be the salvation of private equity firms, such as JC Flowers. But so far, any deal done without government assistance has been a debacle and those done with assistance have been rare.

This entry was posted by Paul Murphy on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 3:15 and is filed under Private equity. Tagged with jc flowers. Edit this entry.