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, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. 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. 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.
