SVB Securities to Be Sold for $100 Million
The investment-banking firm formerly tied to Silicon Valley Bank was approved to be sold out of bankruptcy to the unit’s founder and senior managers Silicon Valley Bank headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., in March. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News By Alexander Saeedy July 6, 2023 3:25 pm ET | WSJ Pro Silicon Valley Bank’s former parent company won court approval to sell its investment-banking business for approximately $100 million, according to court papers, the first sale of a company with ties to the bank since it collapsed in March. SVB Securities, the investment-banking arm of parent SVB Financial, was greenlighted to sell the assets to Jeff Leerink, the investment bank’s founder, as well as eight senior m
Silicon Valley Bank headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., in March.
Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News
Silicon Valley Bank’s former parent company won court approval to sell its investment-banking business for approximately $100 million, according to court papers, the first sale of a company with ties to the bank since it collapsed in March.
SVB Securities, the investment-banking arm of parent SVB Financial, was greenlighted to sell the assets to Jeff Leerink, the investment bank’s founder, as well as eight senior managers. The sale is also backed by billionaire Seth Klarman’s Baupost Group, one of the world’s largest hedge-fund firms.
MoffettNathanson, an equity research firm affiliated with SVB Securities, won’t be sold as part of the transaction, court papers show.
When Silicon Valley Bank collapsed this spring and was taken over by federal regulators, the bank’s parent company SVB Financial filed for chapter 11 protection to ease a sale of its remaining assets. It was the largest bankruptcy filing stemming from a bank failure since Washington Mutual in 2008.
SVB Securities was one of the most valuable assets that SVB Financial put up for sale. SVB Financial bought healthcare investment bank Leerink Partners for $280 million in 2019 and later rebranded it as SVB Securities. Leerink continues to run the combined business, which he founded as Leerink Swann in 1995.
SVB Securities had rapidly added to its ranks over the past few years by poaching bankers from rivals, but several of those bankers have since left, including a team of 11 technology bankers who joined Moelis in April.
Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rising interest rates triggered huge losses on its investments and customers panicked, withdrawing more than $40 billion of deposits in a single day. Regulators decided the bank couldn’t continue to function and stepped in to seize it.
After SVB Financial filed for bankruptcy protection, it said it would begin to sell assets to help repay its creditors.
In late March, First Citizens Bank acquired large pieces of Silicon Valley Bank, including its deposits, loans and branches.
Write to Alexander Saeedy at [email protected]
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