B. Riley slumps as take-private offer fails to stem sell-off

(Reuters) -B. Riley Financial shares fell by nearly 6% after paring early session losses on Monday following a turbulent week that was capped by co-founder and co-CEO Bryant Riley offering to buy the bank.

The Los Angeles, California-based lender's stock ended the session at $5.51, after dropping to as low as $4.82 - the lowest intra-day level since last Thursday.

Riley made an unsolicited offer on Friday to take the bank private for $7 apiece, valuing it at $212 million, and pushing the stock up 16%.

The bank's shares, however, still finished the prior week down by a record 65.5% and hit a decade low after it warned of a second-quarter loss, adding to concerns over its investment in Vitamin Shoppe-owner Franchise Group (NASDAQ:FRG ), which has been under scrutiny.

B. Riley and its CEO received subpoenas from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in July. The subpoenas were primarily related to the bank's dealings with Franchise's former CEO Brian Kahn.

In November, Bloomberg News reported that Kahn was a co-conspirator in a securities fraud involving Prophecy Asset Management.

Kahn has denied the allegations made in the report, saying he never knew that Prophecy Asset was allegedly defrauding investors. Earlier this year, an external investigation as well as an internal review cleared B. Riley of any wrongdoing.

Source: Investing.com