SVB Financial Group has reached a deal to sell its investment banking division to a group led by some of its own top bankers, including Jeffrey Leerink, as well as a hedge fund, the Baupost Group, the firms said on Sunday.
The buyers will pay $55mn in cash and pay off $26mn of SVB Financial Group’s debt, according to court papers filed in conjunction with the transaction. The buyers will also assume deferred banker compensation liabilities and allow SVB Financial Group to keep 5 per cent of the investment bank’s equity.
The unit, known as SVB Securities, has been on the block since Silicon Valley Bank failed earlier this year, when its aborted capital raise sent tremors through the banking industry and prompted regulators in the US to take over its deposit-taking operations.
Read the full story on the Financial Times here.