NEW YORK: B. Riley Financial Inc, the boutique investment bank that’s been whipsawed by a US probe into a former business partner, a string of losses and a plunging stock price, has a new headache: a struggling Texas home-furnishings chain it doesn’t even own.
Conn’s Inc is teetering near bankruptcy, and B. Riley is potentially on the hook for about US$148mil, around a third of its entire loan portfolio. Much of that stems from a loan B. Riley made in December to help Conn’s buy a troubled rival, W.S. Badcock.
