Robert Johnson to Establish U.S. Banking Franchise

Robert Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television has acquired a small Florida bank and plans to move it to Washington as the first step in establishing a nationwide banking franchise to target black customers.

The owner of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats, announced his buyout of the struggling Metro Bank FSB of Orlando as part of the acquisition of its parent company, Worldwide Financial Investors Inc. of Marietta, Ga.

The bank, to be renamed Urban Trust, is part of an effort by Johnson to build what he hopes will be the country's largest minority-owned financial services company.

"I've observed what's been happening with some minority banks out there," said Johnson. "The other big banks have gotten very aggressive at going after their customers. What we're saying is that we can bring the focus and the capital to compete with those big banks on the same terms."

Johnson sold BET to Viacom in 2000 for $3 billion and has been working on his "second act" since leaving BET earlier this year. Three years ago, he acquired the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats and WNBA's Charlotte Sting for $300 million, becoming the first black majority owner of an NBA franchise.

He is now in the process of assembling a large asset management and financial services firm from the Bethesda headquarters of his RLJ Cos. He has teamed with Deutsche Bank AG to form a hedge-fund investment business for wealthy individuals and institutions. And Washington's Carlyle Group, the biggest U.S. private equity firm, is helping him form a leveraged-buyout fund. Three years ago, Johnson began investing in hotels, investing $1.7 billion to acquire 100 Marriott-brand hotels, he now has a $3 billion portfolio of properties around the country which makes him the biggest black hotelier in the world.

Metro Bank FSB was founded in 1963, and for almost all its life it was a black-owned financial institution in Orlando. It has just one office and less than $10 million in deposits and has sustained a series of deficits in recent years, including a $1.6 million loss last year. The buyout will provide a much needed infusion of capital for the bank.