Wilbur Ross

While the recent downgrades of municipal bond insurers MBIA and AMBAC would seem to be bad news for the muni bond market, private equity star Wilbur Ross sees it differently.

“The consolidation of the industry already is beginning,” Ross, CEO of W.L. Ross & Co., told Bloomberg News in a recent interview.

“That’s fine because you have to restore stability to the municipal bond market. Now it’s clear that you have a gang of three. That should clear the air and let municipal bonds trade at a better level.”

Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross says the current market downturn differs from previous slumps in that no American banks have yet failed this time, but he suggests that's about to change.

"I think that's going to be the next wave, and coupled with problems in the commercial real estate market; I think they'll be the next bubbles that burst," the chairman and CEO of W. L. Ross and Company told CNBC's "Squawk Box" in an exclusive interview.

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Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross is in takeover talks with Ambac Financial Group, the UK's Evening Standard reported. The talks are "serious and progressing well," the newspaper said, citing "insiders."

Ambac is looking to raise outside capital after a planned $1 billion equity or convertible issue was cancelled due to market conditions, and the company's main insurance unit lost its top "triple A" credit rating.

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Wilbur Ross, the billionaire who bought a mortgage-collection company out of bankruptcy yesterday, said he may be investing prematurely in the home-loan market because turmoil in the industry will persist for years.

'I'm inclined to think that I'm buying the portfolios probably too early,' Ross said in an interview. The end of the mortgage problem isn't tomorrow, it isn't next week, it's years out.

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Wilbur Ross, the billionaire who specializes in resurrecting failed companies, is betting the U.S. mortgage market will rise from the dead.

"We're looking at everything that's in trouble," said Ross, founder of New York-based WL Ross & Co., in an interview.

Billionaire Wilbur Ross, who helped pioneer investing in bankrupt companies, talks with Bloomberg's Brian Sullivan about his offer to pay at least $435 million for the servicing unit of American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., one of at least 16 lenders in bankruptcy.

Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross talks with Bloomberg's Pimm Fox in New York about the state of credit markets, the outlook for leveraged buyouts and hedge funds, investment opportunities, and his interest in bidding for 26 percent of India's oldest project financier IFCI Ltd. Ross, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Standard Chartered Plc are competing with Blackstone Group LP and General Electric Capital Corp. and other investors for IFCI

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The master of distress talks about the risks and rewards of scooping up ailing portfolios after his American Home deal

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, premiums for this kind of coverage soared, and remain above pre-Katrina levels. Mr. Ross sees opportunity in that, and is now upping his own bets.

Wilbur Ross Targets Auto Supply, Reinsurance Industries in 2007

Click here to see Wilbur Ross interview video.