B. Riley shares climb on reports of Great American unit sale to Oaktree

Investing.com — Investment bank B. Riley Financial Inc (NASDAQ:RILY) has agreed to sell its appraisal and valuations unit to asset manager Oaktree Capital for around $386 million, according to media reports.

B. Riley is due to receive around $203 million in cash, as well as preferred equity units in a new holding company for the unit — known as Great American Group — worth roughly $183 million, the reports added. The deal is tipped to close before the end of the year, reports said.

B. Riley has been moving to offload assets as part of a bid to raise cash to help it contend with a $2 billion debt pile and an investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission into its operations.

Shares in B. Riley, which had previously said it was in negotiations over the sale of a part of its stake in Great American, surged by more than 20% in premarket US trading on Monday.

However, the stock has fallen by more than 81% so far this year.

Monday’s reports come after B. Riley had earlier warned that its exposure to Vitamin Shoppe-owner Franchise Group (NASDAQ:FRG) may lead to a write-down and losses in its second quarter.

Delays in finalizing the valuations of some loans and investments also forced the B. Riley to push back the filing of its quarterly report with regulators.

Meanwhile, co-founder Bryant Riley has put forward a take-private offer for the broker-dealer, arguing that being a public company has forced it to focus on “short-term objectives” and allocate time and attention to “constituencies who are not aligned with the owners of the business,” Reuters reported.

(Reuters contributed to this report.)