Topline
Just days after its former subsidiary, Silicon Valley Bank, was deemed a failure and taken over by regulators, SVB Financial filed for bankruptcy in New York on Friday—an attempt to save assets and businesses it still controls, including its investment bank and venture capital arm.
Key Facts
On Friday morning, SVB Financial announced it filed a voluntary petition for a court-supervised reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
The company, which is no longer affiliated with Silicon Valley Bank or its government-controlled successor, Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, said it has about $2.2 billion of liquidity and $3.3 billion in funded debt.
SVB’s broker-dealer business, SVB Securities, and funds under its venture capital business, SVB Capital, are not included in the filing.
In a statement, SVB Financial chief restructuring officer William Kosturos said the Chapter 11 process will allow the holding company to “preserve value” as it evaluates its options for its “prized businesses and assets, especially SVB Capital and SVB Securities.”
Key Background
Speculation over SVB Financial’s impending bankruptcy has grown since Monday, when the company announced it would “explore strategic alternatives” for its remaining businesses, including its $9.5 billion venture capital and private credit platform. The announcement came after the company’s bank abruptly collapsed on Friday, forcing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to declare it a failed bank and take over its deposits. Under bankruptcy rules, if bondholders aren’t made whole, stockholders are wiped out, notes Interactive Brokers chief strategist Steve Sosnick.
Crucial Quote
“The failure of SVB is a consequence of something much bigger—and how we might be facing the start, rather than the end, of a broader cycle of delinquency, default and bankruptcy,” says Iain Cunningham, a portfolio manager at investment firm Ninety One.
Banks Rush To Borrow Record-Breaking $165 Billion From Fed After SVB Failure (Forbes)
What To Know About Silicon Valley Bank’s Collapse—The Biggest Bank Failure Since 2008 (Forbes)
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