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SVB Securities management is in talks to buy back the investment bank from bankrupt SVB Financial Group, Bloomberg News reported. SVB Securities Chief Executive Officer Jeff Leerink and his team are preparing to announce a deal for the firm in the coming days, pending approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter isn’t public. No final decision has been made and talks could still fall apart. SVB Securities spent heavily in recent years hiring talent across Wall Street to build a competitive investment banking franchise, which was particularly strong in the health-care and technology sectors. The firm advised on about $9 billion in mergers and acquisitions last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Bloomberg News first reported in March that the management of SVB Securities was exploring buying back the firm after Silicon Valley Bank was seized by regulators. SVB Financial, the former parent of Silicon Valley Bank, filed for bankruptcy in March, though SVB Securities and venture capital arm SVB Capital weren’t included in the filing.

Aerospace supplier Incora filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday, citing depressed demand for aircraft maintenance and litigation over its efforts to restructure its debt outside of bankruptcy, Reuters reported. Incora entered bankruptcy with $3.14 billion in debt, according to its court filings in Houston bankruptcy court. Incora CEO David Coleal said in a statement that the company intended to "right-size" its debt while continuing to meet customer demand. Incora was formed through a 2020 merger of Wesco and Pattonair, both owned by the private equity firm Platinum Equity. The combination aimed to expand the companies’ global reach and provide cost-saving synergies, but the deal was finalized in March 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down air travel in much of the world, according to court documents. As air travel resumed, Incora faced additional challenges including supply chain disruption, high inflation, and a slower-than-expected rebound from the pandemic, particularly in China’s commercial air travel industry. Profits dropped from $204 million in 2019 to $65 million in 2021, according to court filings. Incora attempted to stave off bankruptcy through an out-of-court debt restructuring in 2022, which provided the company with $224 million in cash and extended the due date for a significant majority of its loans. The move was not enough to fully stabilize the company and sparked litigation from junior lenders who alleged that the debt restructuring improperly transferred value from some lenders to others.

Corporate bankruptcy filings are rising after a pandemic lull, totaling 236 this year through April, the highest total since 2010, according to S&P Global, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Houston stands to gain from that upswing, since its popularity as a bankruptcy venue has been growing for nearly a decade, according to a University of California, Los Angeles database that tracks large chapter 11 filings. While Houston only hosted around 4% of large public-company bankruptcies in 2012, that share reached 50% by 2020 and has stayed around there ever since. The city’s rise has elevated it alongside Wilmington, Del., and New York, long considered the most popular chapter 11 landing spots.

A federal bankruptcy judge has ordered Diamond Sports to pay the full value of its media contracts to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers, the Associated Press reported. Judge Christopher Lopez made the ruling yesterday in Houston. Diamond Sports, which owns 19 networks under the Bally Sports banner, has been in chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the Southern District of Texas since it filed in March. Diamond said in a financial filing last fall it had debt of $8.67 billion. In April, the judge ruled Diamond to pay half of what the teams were owed in rights fees. “I think the contract rate is the right answer here,” said Judge Lopez in issuing his decision after two marathon days of testimony. The decision is another chapter in what has been a contentious week in the strained relationship between MLB and Diamond Sports. On Tuesday, the last San Diego Padres game was aired on Bally Sports San Diego after Diamond Sports missed a rights payment fee and let the grace period expire. MLB took over production of Padres' telecasts, beginning with Wednesday's game at the Miami Marlins. Whether MLB takes over other teams and Diamond Sports lets other payments lapse after the grace period will have to be answered over the next four months. If Diamond rejects the terms of the agreement, the rights would revert back to MLB and the teams.

A Davie, Fla.-based retailer of Invicta watches with stores in nine states has filed for bankruptcy protection, the South Florida Business Journal reported. Retailing Enterprises LLC, also doing business as Invicta Stores and Techno Marine Store, submitted a Chapter 11 petition to U.S. Bankruptcy Court's Southern District of Florida on May 30. According to court documents, Retailing Enterprises, owned by Mauricio Krantzberg, owes 20 creditors more than $47.52 million. Detailed assets were not included in the documents, although Krantzberg stated in a petition that his company made $27.88 million in sales so far this year. The court gave Retailing Enterprises LLC, represented by Boca Raton attorney Aaron Wernick, until June 13 to file more detailed financial information. Retailing Enterprises' largest creditors include Hollywood-based Invicta Watch Co. of America ($29.53 million), a Main Street loan from Miami-based City National Bank of Florida ($9.8 million), Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group ($3.85 million), New York-based Vornado Realty Trust ($1.6 million) and New Jersey merchandising company ZWI Group LLC ($1.05 million).

A group of private investment firms, some with longstanding ties to the oil and gas industry, bought a Denver natural gas producer for $1.84 billion in a deal struck on Wednesday, the Denver Business Journal reported. Denver-based PureWest Energy LLC, the largest natural gas producer in Wyoming, will keep its local headquarters and its executive team in place but is now owned by a consortium of family offices and private equity funds. CEO Chris Valdez said that the new ownership will fortify the company, which has grown in downtown Denver since it formed out of the bankruptcy of a predecessor natural gas business and acquired some neighboring Wyoming gas operations. PureWest used to be known as Ultra Petroleum and UP Energy, a publicly traded company that moved to Denver from Texas in 2018. It reorganized and shed $2 billion in debt through chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020 during the oil and gas crash set off by the pandemic, and it emerged owned by its lenders operating under new management and adopting the PureWest Energy name. The group of buyers that acquired PureWest calls itself the PW Consortium.

Wejo, a Manchester, England-based company that deals in connected vehicle data, has filed a notice of intention to enter administration to save it from liquidation, InsideRadio.com reported. The company, whose largest shareholder is General Motors Ventures, says it does not expect the move to impact its operations or business, according to BusinessLive. Wejo has been supplying connected car data to at least one U.S. broadcaster and has been working on signing others as clients. In a pilot study with Capitol Broadcasting Company, Wejo supplies near real-time radio listening data from cars and trucks in the broadcaster’s North Carolina base to use in programming decisions and for sales purposes. Capitol Broadcasting Company is the owner of 13 radio stations in Raleigh-Durham and Wilmington, N.C. The data comes from in-car sensors in vehicles made in 2015 or later that transmit billions of data points to automakers. As of April, Wejo had deals with 28 car companies to access their data and said it expected to sign up more in the next 6-12 months.