The remnants of Washington Mutual Inc, the biggest U.S. bank to fail, has hired Blackstone Group LP to advise it on how to grow -- possibly in a business other than banking, Reuters reported today. In an unusual step, WMI Holdings, the parent company of the failed bank, is considering buying companies or starting businesses using a $125 million credit facility, "substantial cash" and advice from the Wall Street private equity company. WMI has not decided what it would buy and the target may not be a financial services company. Based in Seattle, Washington Mutual was 119 years old when regulators seized it on Sept. 25, 2008, at the height of the financial crisis. With $307 billion in assets, it was one of the biggest corporate casualties of the crisis, alongside Lehman Brothers Holdings and Bear Sterns, and remains the largest U.S. bank or thrift to fail.
