Bryant Riley, the co-founder of investment firm B. Riley Financial Inc., told employees he feels “personally sick” after the collapse of Franchise Group Inc., which came a little more than a year after he helped to arrange a $2.8 billion buyout that became one of his firm’s key holdings.
The August 2023 deal for Franchise Group, or FRG, saw B. Riley take a stake of about 31%. The Chapter 11 bankruptcy that FRG declared Sunday wiped out shareholders, leading to an impairment of $120 million for Riley’s Los Angeles-based company, after previously announced writedowns of up to $370 million, according to a statement.