Silicon Valley Bank's former parent company SVB Financial Group has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The move, which comes a week after regulators seized control of Silicon Valley Bank, is designed to "preserve value" for the former parent as it explores "strategic alternatives" for its broker-dealer SVB Securities and venture capital arm SVB Capital.
There is "significant interest" from potential buyers in those businesses, whose funds and general partner entities are not included in the Chapter 11 filing and continue to operate.
SVB "believes" it has approximately $2.2 billion of liquidity, while its funded debt is about $3.3 billion and it has $3.7 billion of preferred equity outstanding.
"The Chapter 11 process will allow SVB Financial Group to preserve value as it evaluates strategic alternatives for its prized businesses and assets, especially SVB Capital and SVB Securities," says William Kosturos, chief restructuring officer, SVB Financial Group.