金融时报:Barclays可能买下Lehman

Enoch

Lehman倒闭的后续消息

[金融时报 英文报道 9月16日]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5c9dcc ... 0-000077b07658.html

Barclays nears Lehman deal

By Julie MacIntosh in New York and Chris Hughes in London

Published: September 16 2008 14:23 | Last updated: September 16 2008 16:09

Lehman Brothers on Tuesday reached an agreement in principle to sell certain parts of its business to Barclays, which had been in talks over the weekend to buy the entire investment bank before it filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday.

The two parties have come to an agreement that centres around Lehman’s core US broker-dealer operations, which perform securities underwriting tasks, provide merger advice to lucrative clients, and conduct trading. Lehman and Barclays are still working to hammer out key regulatory issues and other components of a deal, according to sources close to the matter.

A deal could also be accompanied by a small capital raising by the UK lender.

Whether other Lehman businesses would be included in the sale, and the price at which the assets would be sold, remained unclear.

“It is a much cleaner deal to do the US deal, so that’s what they’re focused on,” said one person with knowledge of the matter. “It’s a very good, complementary fit.”

Lehman’s European and Asian investment banking divisions have been part of the discussions between the two banks, and employees within those units were anxiously awaiting word on Tuesday as to whether they would be included in any sale, people have said.

The initial transaction, however, could exclude those businesses but allow Barclays to revisit them later. Barclays is thought to be interested in acquiring some of Lehman’s entities based in Europe, but it could also choose simply to hire former employees of the US bank.

An agreement to buy Lehman’s core business would significantly boost Barclays’ US presence. The bank has made several key hires in recent months, poaching investment bankers from rival firms. But a purchase of Lehman’s banking unit would allow it to build up its US operation far more quickly.

Now that Lehman’s parent company has filed for bankruptcy, it is likely that Barclays will purchase the operations at a low price. Lehman has been scrambling against the clock to sell operations that have not filed for bankruptcy protection – which also include its Neuberger Berman asset management business – before their value evaporates as employees leave for other firms and accounts are transferred.

Hank Paulson, US Treasury secretary, had earlier asked Barclays to register its interest in buying Lehman in its entirety, as the struggling bank laboured to find a shotgun suitor over the course of a single weekend.

Barclays, which has pledged to diversify its lines of business and geographic concentration, jumped at the opportunity to evaluate a Lehman takeover.

But the UK bank pulled out of the high-stakes talks when it became clear that US authorities would not guarantee Lehman’s trading book until Barclays could win the approvals it needed to seal a deal.

Shares in Barclays fell as much as 13 per cent on Tuesday, in line with sharp falls among other UK financial stocks, but recovered in late trading to stand 5 per cent lower at 300p.