The real estate and investment firm of Colony Financial Inc. said Thursday it led a group of investors in a buy-out of First Republic Bank in San Francisco.

Los Angeles-based Colony invested $24 million in the deal, which totaled about $1.86 billion. The rest of the money came from private equity fund General Atlantic LLC and a group of investors.

In a statement, Richard Saltzman, Colony’s chief executive, called the bank “a top-tier, nationally recognized financial institution with a superior portfolio of residential and commercial mortgage assets.”

Founded in 1985 as a specialty bank for wealthy individuals and families, First Republic was bought by Merrill Lynch in 2007 for $1.8 billion. Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch in 2009.

Today’s transaction re-establishes the bank as “an independent financial institution with approximately $20 billion of total banking assets, $18 billion of deposits and $16 billion of wealth management assets,” according to a statement from the company.

First Republic has 62 branches, including one each in Beverly Hills, Brentwood, downtown Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Century City and Studio City.