Franchise Group, the company at the heart of a troubled management buyout that has devastated the stock of B. Riley Financial, has filed for bankruptcy — but plans to keep open most of its retail brands, including Vitamin Shoppe.

The retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday, announcing it already had a deal with about 80% of its senior secured lenders that would allow them to convert their debt into ownership stakes and continue operating the businesses.

The company’s chains also include Pet Supplies Plus and Buddy’s Home Furnishings. Its fourth retailer, discount furniture and appliance seller American Freight, will be closed. American Freight operates more than a dozen stores in California, including outlets in Torrance, West Covina and Palmdale.

Westwood-based B. Riley took the Delaware, Ohio, company private last year in a $2.8-billion management-led buyout that turned disastrous amid slowing sales for Franchise Group and a scandal involving ties between its founder, Brian Kahn, and Prophecy Asset Management, a hedge fund that federal prosecutors allege defrauded investors of $294 million. Kahn has denied any wrongdoing.

B. Riley took on $600 million in debt to underwrite the deal and lent Kahn $200 million over the years to establish Franchise Group and take it private — with most of the loan secured by shares of the retailer. B. Riley founder and co-ceo Bryant Riley has denied knowledge of any wrongdoing, but his firm’s dealings with Kahn are the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.

Riley, in a letter Monday to employees, said he felt “personally sick about this result,” which would likely result in a total loss of any equity stakes in Franchise Group for the company, 69 employees and others, including wealth clients and institutional investors.

He added that the downturn in consumer spending and the scandal involving Prophecy could not have been foreseen, but that B. Riley is in “far better shape than folks give us credit for.”

B. Riley has already announced that it would mark down its investment in Franchise Group by up to $370 million and record a loss of up to $475 million when it files its second quarter earnings, which it has yet to do.

Shares of B. Riley were down 13% to $4.95 Monday on the Nasdaq. The stock traded close to $90 three years ago.

Riley told The Times in September that the firm had lowered its debt related to the deal to about $380 million and was carrying $1.9 billion in total debt.

The financial services company has since been selling off assets to continue cutting its debt. Riley, in his letter, said that debt related to the Franchise deal would lower to $125 million by the end of the month.

In September, B. Riley said it had sold a majority stake in its Great American appraisal and liquidation business for about $203 million to Oaktree Capital Management, while retaining a 47% stake valued at roughly $183 million in a new holding company it formed with the L.A. distressed asset manager.

The company also sold off its its interests in a number of apparel brands and the former mall retailer Brookstone for about $236 million.

A few days ago, it said it had sold off a small portion of its wealth management business to Stifel Financial Corp. for up to $35 million in cash. Some 40 to 50 advisors, along with the associated customer accounts, are expected to move to Stifel early next year.

San Francisco —  Jet airplanes spew enormous amounts of greenhouse gases and noxious chemicals, but the industry insists it wants to clean itself up.

Some of the largest commercial airlines and airborne cargo carriers in the U.S. have banded together to help solve the problem under their trade group Airlines for America. On Wednesday, the group announced a partnership with the California Air Resources Board to set policy to pave the way for wide adoption of sustainable aviation fuels, or SAFs.

Those fuels today are based on food waste and farm crops, although alternatives including hydrogen lie on the horizon. United Airlines started using some SAF in 2015. But SAFs’ share of the market is tiny, and they’re two to three times as expensive as jet fuel — basically kerosene — from refined oil.

Biofuels also draw criticism from many environmentalists because their supply chain still contributes carbon to the atmosphere, and much of what’s burned today is a mix of SAF and fossil jet fuel. And, they say, land used to grow corn and other fuel ingredients could be put to better use.

CARB and the airlines will “work together with sustainable aviation fuel producers, aviation stakeholders, and the federal government to ensure that at least 200 million gallons of cost-competitive options are available for use by airlines within California by 2035,” the air board said in a press release. “A Sustainable Aviation Fuel Working Group of government and industry stakeholders” will be created.

The major focus will be on state and federal financial incentives and permit reform.

The plan was announced at a news conference at San Francisco International Airport on Wednesday. CARB Chair Liane Randolph said that “California is once again demonstrating that smart climate action is good for the environment and good for business.”

“This partnership with the nation’s leading airlines brings the aviation industry onboard to advance a clean air future and will help accelerate development of sustainable fuel options and promote cleaner air travel within the state,” she said.

The 200 million gallons “seems like a pretty modest goal to me,” said Aaron Smith, an agriculture and resources economist at UC Berkeley.

The federal government is aiming to create a supply of 3 billion gallons by 2030, which most industry observers consider an aggressive target.

The passenger airlines and cargo carriers working with the state are Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Atlas Air Worldwide, Delta Air Lines, FedEx, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, UPS and Air Canada.

With its manufacturing practices under scrutiny, its machinists on strike and losses piling up, Boeing is said to be considering selling parts of its fabled space business. But few industry analysts think Boeing will put its extensive El Segundo satellite operations on the table.

New Boeing Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg said during a recent earnings call that the aerospace giant was considering shedding assets outside of the company’s core commercial aviation and defense businesses, adding that Boeing was better off “doing less and doing it better than doing more and not doing it well.”

That could mean that Boeing sees no future for its troubled Starliner spacecraft, which was developed to service the International Space Station. The Arlington, Va., aerospace giant also has been trying to exit its United Launch Alliance joint launch venture with Lockheed Martin. Both programs face stiff competition from Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which recently announced it was moving its headquarters from Hawthorne to Brownsville, Texas.

But any asset sale is not expected to encompass Boeing’s satellite manufacturing operations in El Segundo, which include a 1-million-square-foot plant with several thousand workers it acquired in 2000 with its purchase of Hughes Electronics Corp.’s space and communications business.

“It’s not a booming growth business, but there’s no reason for Boeing to get out anytime soon,” said Marco Caceres, an aerospace analyst at Teal Group, noting the continuing demand for the large satellites made at the facility despite changes in the industry.

Shedding parts of it space business would be a landmark decision for Boeing, which has deep ties to the space program in Southern California — where it has built rockets, the X-37 space plane and components for the space station.

Ortberg’s comments come amid manufacturing concerns over its key 737 commercial jet program and a machinists strike that is estimated to be costing $50 million a day. Boeing raised $21 billion in a stock sale this week to shore up its balance sheet.

Boeing also has been the target of multiple whistleblower lawsuits that have alleged lax safety and manufacturing practices that resulted in quality-control issues.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that Boeing was considering selling parts of its space business last week. A Boeing spokesperson said the company “doesn’t comment on market rumors or speculation.”

The El Segundo satellite plant makes large satellites for commercial, government and military customers, including the O3b mPOWER communications satellite for SES, a Luxembourg telecommunications company. Other programs include a $440-million defense contract that Boeing was awarded in March to build another Wideband Global Satcom satellite, which provide fast and secure communications for the U.S. and its allies.

Caceres said manufacturing large satellites remains lucrative for now, though the trend has been for networks of thousands of smaller satellites, such as SpaceX’s Starlink broadband network.

“It’s still a good business but it’s going to be diminished, because it really is these big, mega-constellation systems that are the future,” he said.

In 2018, Boeing acquired a maker of small satellites called Millennium Space Systems, which also is based in El Segundo and whose operations have been partially integrated with the company’s existing plant. The company has received U.S. defense contracts for satellites to detect new threats such as hypersonic missiles.

Other Boeing space businesses in the region expected to survive any restructuring include Spectrolab, a Sylmar subsidiary that makes solar cells for satellites and other space applications. Boeing also is expected to continue its participation in the Space Launch System, a massive rocket developed in Huntsville, Ala., that NASA plans to use to send astronauts back to the moon.

The clearest choice for a possible sale or program closure, analysts agree, is the Starliner capsule built to service the International Space Station with crews and supplies. The spacecraft was manufactured at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and launches from nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Boeing was awarded a $4.6-billion contract in 2014 to develop the craft and has been hit with some $1.5 billion in cost overruns, but the vehicle has yet to be certified. Meanwhile, SpaceX was awarded a smaller contract to develop a crewed capsule, based on its existing Cargo Dragon capsule, and that craft has made more than a dozen trips to the station.

In a blow to Boeing, NASA decided in August to have SpaceX return two astronauts brought to the space station by Starliner in June after the capsule developed propulsion problems while docking on its third test flight. Although the Starliner returned remotely in September, NASA and Boeing are still investigating what went wrong.

Also seen as expendable is Boeing’s participation in the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture it formed in 2006. It claims a perfect mission success rate in more than 150 military and commercial launches. ULA is based in Denver and launches from Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County.

The venture introduced its new Vulcan Centaur rocket this year, which is partly reusable and lowers launch costs to about $110 million. It is more powerful than its SpaceX competitor, the Falcon 9, but that rocket has a fully reusable booster and flight costs starting at less than $70 million.

The space industry has been rife with speculation about who might acquire ULA — Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space company has been rumored as a possible buyer — but no deal has emerged, possibly because the price is too high, said Laura Forczyk, executive director of space industry consulting firm Astralytical.

Although the business is not as strong as it used to be, ULA’s reliability, a shortage of launch vehicles and the new rocket’s technical advances means it can still attract business, she said, adding: “There’s just so much demand for launch services.”