SVB Financial Group announced Sunday that it reached a deal to sell its investment banking business, SVB Securities, to a management-led consortium following a competitive bidding process.
SVB Financial Group filed for a Chapter 11 restructuring in March shortly after US authorities seized control of Silicon Valley Bank, another unit that suffered from a run on deposits.
“The SVB Securities management team bidder group led by CEO Jeff Leerink, and backed by The Baupost Group, today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement with SVB Financial Group to purchase SVB Securities following a competitive bidding process,” SVB Securities said in a separate statement.
The amount of the buyout agreement was not specified, but the statement said that “with the strong financial backing from The Baupost Group, the firm is extremely well positioned to continue to build on its leadership position in healthcare investment banking.”
“The management team and I are excited to return to our heritage of owning and leading the premier healthcare investment bank and relaunching the business under the trusted Leerink Partners brand,” said Leerink, who founded the firm in 1995.
The deal will be subject to final confirmation by the US Bankruptcy Court and regulators “as well as other customary closing conditions,” the statement said.
Federal regulators seized control of Silicon Valley Bank on March 10 after its disclosure of trading losses days earlier sparked a run of depositors.
SVB Securities had not been included in Silicon Valley Bank’s March 17 bankruptcy filing.
SVB Securities “is a separate legal entity from SVB Financial Group” and “continues to operate in the ordinary course,” SVB Financial said in a March 17 news release.
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CORRECTS story dated June 18 to say that SVB Securities is controlled by SVB Financial, not Silicon Valley Bank
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