In response to inquiries, Jefferies Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:JEF) has issued an update on Point Bonita Capital and First Brands Group.
On September 29, 2025, First Brands Group, LLC and certain of its affiliates filed voluntary petitions for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. First Brands is an aftermarket auto parts manufacturer that sells its products to major auto-parts retailers (the “Obligors”).
Point Bonita Capital, a division of Leucadia Asset Management (“LAM”), manages on behalf of third-party institutional and other investors an approximately $3 billion portfolio of trade-finance assets, which is supported by total invested equity of $1.9 billion, of which $113 million, or 5.9%, is owned by LAM.
Since 2019, the portfolio has included accounts receivables purchased from First Brands and arising from the sale of First Brands’ products to Obligors. The purchase of receivables in this fashion is called factoring, and the Point Bonita portfolio has approximately $715 million invested in receivables that are almost entirely due from Walmart, Autozone, NAPA, O’Reilly Auto Parts, and Advanced Auto Parts, with First Brands, as the servicer, responsible for directing the Obligors’ payments to Point Bonita.
On September 15, 2025, First Brands stopped directing timely transfers of funds from the Obligors on Point Bonita’s behalf. In its bankruptcy filings, First Brands indicated that its special advisors were investigating whether receivables had been turned over to third-party factors upon receipt and whether receivables may have been factored more than once.
Jefferies says it has not yet received any information regarding the results of that investigation.
Jefferies is in communication with First Brands’ advisors and is working to determine what the impact on Point Bonita might be.
Separately, Apex Credit Partners LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Jefferies Finance LLC, 50%-owned by Jefferies, manages on behalf of third-party institutional and other investors certain CLOs that invest in broadly syndicated loans with approximately $4.2 billion in assets under management. 12 CLOs and 1 CLO warehouse managed by Apex own approximately $48 million in the aggregate of First Brands’ term loans, which is approximately 1% of the CLO assets managed by Apex.
Apex owns between 5% and 9.9% of the equity tranche of each of its managed CLOs plus a portion of the other senior tranches in an amount to comply with applicable securitization risk-retention rules.
Jefferies owns no other securities or obligations issued by First Brands.
