Global Consumer May Buy Colonial Bank Assets

NEW YORK (AP) — Global Consumer Acquisition Corp. said late Thursday it is in discussions with BB&T Corp. to purchase a portion or all of Nevada assets acquired from Colonial BancGroup Inc.

Colonial BancGroup, a big lender in real estate development, was closed last Friday by Alabama banking regulators. With about $25 billion in assets, it was the biggest U.S. bank to fail this year.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver and approved the sale of $20 billion in deposits and about $22 billion of its assets to BB&T Corp.

If the deal for Global Consumer to buy the Nevada assets is worked out, the company would be renamed Western Liberty Bancorp. Its focus would be on conservative business and commercial real estate lending, consumer lending, treasury management services, trade finance and depository products.

BB&T, based in Winston-Salem, N.C., operates throughout the Southeast and is considered among the nation's stronger regional banks.

Global Consumer is a $300 million company formed by investment manager Jason Ader to acquire consumer products and services companies.