By Megan Davies

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Financier Wilbur Ross said on Tuesday he was disappointed with the decision by Britain to nationalize ailing bank Northern Rock Plc NRK.L, but said if the bank were reprivatized at some point in the near future, he would be willing to consider a new bid.

Ross was part of a group led by Richard Branson's Virgin Group that bid for Northern Rock. He told Reuters last week he believed his consortium's proposal was "quite superior" to rival proposals and said under the plan, his fund would contribute roughly 500 million sterling ($976 million) to the investment.

However, Britain decided to nationalize Northern Rock on Sunday, abandoning a five-month attempt to snare a private sector buyer for the ailing bank.

Ross said in an e-mail on Tuesday: "We are naturally disappointed but were not prepared to change the terms because that would have diluted our potential returns to levels below our requirements. If the reprivatization occurs in the near future, we would be willing to consider a new bid based on the then prevailing facts and circumstances."

Britain's fifth-largest mortgage lender has borrowed 25 billion pounds ($49 billion) from the Bank of England since its funding model collapsed in the credit crisis last year, sparking the first run on deposits at a British bank for some 140 years.

Ross is chairman of WL Ross & Co, the private equity firm he founded in 2000 that has been part of fund manager Invesco Ltd since 2006.

(Editing by Maureen Bavdek)