Private equity firm TPG has used its negotiating prowess to acquire cut-price shares from WaMu and B&B - in return for much-needed rescue capital Desperate consumers sometimes turn to unregulated door-to-door lenders to raise cash in an emergency. They know that interest costs will be hugely punitive but believe that they have no choice. Shareholders in US bank Washington Mutual (WaMu) and the UK's Bradford & Bingley (B&B) may well be feeling that the rescue capital from private equity firm TPG will be just as expensive, but many argue that both firms could have taken an alternative route. In April, WaMu's board agreed a $7bn infusion, selling the shares at 26% below the stock's price on the day of the deal; it also sold 20,000 preferred shares that would convert into common stock at the same discounted price and issued warrants allowing TPG to acquire a further 68.2 million shares. Then, in May, B&B scrapped a plan for a ￡300m ($589.7m) rights issue, at 82p a share, and instead sold ￡179m-worth of new shares to TPG at a deeply discounted 55p a share, raising ￡258m.
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