A process to sell the venture-capital arm of bankrupt SVB Financial, the former parent of Silicon Valley Bank, has fallen flat and creditors are now gearing up for a potential takeover of the business, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Two front-runners had been vying for SVB Capital: a duo of Anthony Scaramucci’s SkyBridge Capital and Atlas Merchant Capital, and San Francisco private-equity firm Vector Capital, the Wall Street Journal reported in September. Those bidders aren’t moving forward in the process, after SVB considered the bids to be too low. Instead a group of SVB Financial’s creditors is planning to take over the venture capital business for themselves, the people said. SVB Capital has around $10 billion in assets under management, including investments in venture capital funds, direct investments in tech companies, and a book of private loans. It was expected to fetch anywhere between $250 million and $500 million. Bankers at Centerview Partners were advising the parent company on the process. If new bidders don’t show up to buy the business, it would stay in the reorganized SVB Financial which could be controlled by creditors including Pacific Investment Management Co. and Davidson Kempner Capital Management once the bankruptcy is done.
