March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Citadel Investment Group LLC agreed to buy ResMae Mortgage Corp. for about $180 million, beating out Credit Suisse Group in a last-minute auction for the bankrupt mortgage lender.

Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund, offered about $20 million for ResMae's lending platform and 98.5 cents on the dollar for the company's $160 million loan portfolio, said Ron Greenspan, a financial adviser for ResMae's creditors. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin J. Carey in Wilmington, Delaware, will decide today whether to approve the sale.

``Citadel stepped up and gave us a firm bid,'' said Greenspan, senior managing director in FTI Consulting's Los Angeles office. Zurich-based Credit Suisse had offered 98 cents on the dollar for the loans and laced its bid with conditions and adjustments, he said.

Citadel challenged Credit Suisse's $19.1 million bid for ResMae's lending operation last week, triggering an auction that began March 2. On Feb. 13, Brea, California-based ResMae had filed for bankruptcy protection and won Carey's permission to sell its assets to Credit Suisse, bypassing the court-supervised auction normally required under Chapter 11 rules.

Credit Suisse spokesman Pen Pendleton in New York declined to comment.

ResMae was considering four offers in December, including a $55.3 million bid from Credit Suisse. The offers were rescinded after ResMae revealed that Merrill Lynch & Co. had demanded that the lender buy back $308 million in home loans that had defaulted.

The case is In re: ResMae Mortgage Corp., 07-10177, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).

-- With Reporting by Jody Shenn in New York. Editor: Farr.

To contact the reporters on this story: Steven Church in Wilmington, Delaware, at +1-302-661-7606 or schurch3@bloomberg.net; Bradley Keoun in New York at +1-212-617-2310 or bkeoun@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Patrick Oster at +1-212-617-4088 or poster@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 5, 2007 14:39 EST