Top executives at Lehman Brothers along with money managers could get retention bonuses valued at $400 million when their investment-management business is sold to Hellman & Friedman LLC and Bain Capital LLC.

Bain and Hellman agreed on a deal to buy the majority of the asset management unit from the collapsed bank Lehman Brothers back on September 29 for the price of $2.15 billion, which was around fifty percent of the buyout firms initial bid. Lehman Lawyers said yesterday in a court hearing that both Bain and Hellman would deduct the employee awards from the amount they pay the Lehman for the assets.

The bonus proposals come after lawmakers in a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing faulted Lehman Chief Executive Officer Richard Fulds compensation of $484.8 million since 2000. Under 2005 bankruptcy laws, creditors could try to recover Fuld’s pay and the money managers’ retention bonuses, said Lynn LoPucki, who teaches bankruptcy law at University of California at Los Angeles and Harvard University.

“Fuld took huge bonuses while running a highly risky business, and these executives are taking their money after the end came,” he said. “The estate of the bankrupt company is entitled to recover the payments.”

Hellman of San Francisco and Bail who are based in Boston teamed up to buy Lehman Brothers as the two private equity firms were the only bidders in a auction that was rushed after the Wall Street investment bank filed for bankruptcy in New York.

Source: Bloomberg

American International Group Inc the giant insurer who had to be bailed out by the US government last month is being investigated by lawmakers, asking questions as to how it played its role in the chain of events leading to the $700 billion to rescue the financial industry amid the financial crisis that has hit globally.

One of AIG’s chief executive officers Maurice “Hank” Greenberg as well as two other CEO’s is to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, in the two day hearing they have to talk about regulatory mistakes and financial excesses which has led to continuing fears of global recession.

Lehman Brothers CEO also testified yesterday in-front of the congressional oversight panel, but answers did not flow from the Lehman Brothers stand regarding the collapse of the credit market amid the September events.

Source: India Express

Lehman Brothers the failed US investment bank has agreed to sell its investment management division to Hellman Friedman and Bain Capital both private equity firms for a price of $2.15 billion (£1.19 billion).

In addition to Lehman’s property investment and private equity the deal includes the Neuberger Berman asset management unit that takes care of around $130 billion of investments.

Analysts were valued Lehman Brothers investment management division around $10 billion shortly after the investment bank filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which is way off the $2.15 billion that Hellman Friedman and Vain Capital have actually paid.

Lehman’s North American business was sold to Barclays for $1.7 billion. Japanese brokerage Nomura brought Lehman Brothers Asia, Middle East and European operations for a bargain price as the failed bank struggled to sell off any parts of its business that was relatively healthy since its bankruptcy filing.

Read the full article: timesonline

Nomura the Japanese brokerage firm has confirmed that they are buying the Middle Eastern and European equities and investments banking operations of collapsed US investment bank Lehman Brothers.

UK bank Barclays were also bidding for the European arm of Lehman but they pulled out of the negotiation allowing Nomura to strike the deal, Nomura has said that the majority of the 2,500 members of staff at the Lehman Brothers will keep their jobs with the highest proportion being retained at the offices in Canary Wharf, London.

Nomura have signed two transformational deals in the past 24 hours, the Japanese firm also signed a deal to take over Lehman operation in Asia Pacific. Nomura have not disclosed how much they were paying for both Lehman operations, but it is said that the European deal does not include any trading liabilities or trading assets.

Read the full story in the Guardian

Nomura has brought the Asian business of failed US investment bank Lehman Brothers for $230 million (£125 million). Nomura are Japans largest brokerage house were in a bidding war with Barclay’s for the Asia business. The deal was said to have signed earlier today and was described as “a steal” by company insiders.

The battle still continues between Nomura and Barclays to buy large chunks of the failed US banks European operations. It’s hinted that both back placed their bids last night and that that decisions will be made within 24 hours.

Lehman Brothers Asian operations extend from Mainland Chins to Australia and include Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan.

The speed of the deal came as a surprise Japan watchers, as Nomura were thought not be aggressive enough to take on Barclays. It’s clear that the outcome of this deal shows that Japan is ready to take full advantage of the financial crisis that hit Wall Street last week.

Read the full story in timesonline

Barclays just days after acquiring Lehman Brother’s Wall Street division are shopping again, this time the UK bank is set to land Lehman Brothers European equity division. Barclays and Japans’ Nomura have both pitched in with offers for European the collapsed banks European business.

Barclays last week signed a £940 million deal to take over Lehman’s US investment bank and debt and equity trading division. Barclays are in a good position to win the deal because they managed to save ten thousand Wall Street jobs last week; However Nomura has offered to take on all of Lehman Brothers Europe.

It’s likely a decision will be made today, as Lehman’s Brothers European administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers are concerned about more staff and customers walking out the door.

There is a significant overlap of staff between Barclay Capital and Lehman Brothers 5,000 European staff, so it’s possible thousands could lose their jobs in the Canary Wharf headquarters.
Barclays could also be in a good position to acquire all or all of the US banks Asia business.

Read the full story in thisismoney

Lehman Brothers European administrators are demanding $8 billion (£4.4 billion) to be returned from the US headquarters to London, they filed the court order in New York.

The UK administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said the money was needed to pay salaries, creditors, property bills and other day-to-day expenses. PwC are currently trying to find buyers for different departments of the failed investment bank Lehman Brothers Europe.

The BBC’s Joe Lyman said before Lehman Brothers went into administration on September 15 ’08 that the failed bank’s European arm transferred money on a regular basis from its London headquarters to its parent company in New York. “The money was usually kept overnight – earning interest – before being sent back to London.”

But on September 14 ’08 before Lehman filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection the money did no get transferred, which left Lehman Europe $8 billion down, it was also reported that a formal request for the money to be transferred had been given earlier in the week.

Read the full story at the bbc

Lehman Brothers the collapsed US investment bank could help the U.S. commercial real-estate market according the real estate executives. There will be a string of investors waiting to pick the bones of Lehman Brothers waiting to pick up a bargain from some $32.6 billion worth of commercial properties that Lehman had of August 31 and may be prompted to sell.

Lehman filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday, Chapter 11 allows a company to walk away from a lease, experts say that under US bankruptcy procedures the investments will be sold slowly and not put on the market to be sold in one fell swoop.

As investors hands will come from all sides of the markets experts say that this may help set values of similar assets and could help in the process and break the standoff between potential sellers and buyers, it could be a case of the investors saying if the return is good enough for them then it would be good enough for you.

Read the full article in bworldonline

British Bank Barclays paid $11.5 billion for Lehman Brothers New York headquarters and two data centres and $250 million for the North American investment banking unit. Barclays walked away from the deal at the weekend, which forced Lehman Brothers to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday.

Barclays is acquiring Lehman’s equities sales, fixed income, and research and departments in North America. It’s likely that the deal will protect around 10,000 employees that are working in the departments.

Chief operator at Lehman Brothers Herbert McDade said “We have the opportunity to continue the growth and development of our US investment banking and capital market franchises with one of the leading financial institutions in the world.” Said when asked about the Barclay’s takeover.

Read the full article in BBC

Barclays who walked away from a deal with Lehman Brothers 48 hours ago is not on the verge of securing a deal to buy the core business of the collapsed investment bank Lehman Brothers. Bob Diamond president of Barclays’ addressed staff at Lehman in New York Tuesday afternoon saying to them “You have a new partner.” Although Barclays lawyers were still finalising the deal.

As Lehman Brother filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy it brought catastrophe to Wall Street and the mayhem to the financial markets, if the deal does go ahead which looks extremely likely it would overnight make Barclays one of the leading Wall Street Players and would also save about 8,500 jobs.

The agreement with Barclays does not include Lehman’s London arm of the business, for now at least it seems, but this has not been ruled out.

Read the full article in the guardian download world s fastest indian the online