Clock ticking on deal for Lehman
Lehman Brothers staff in Asia remain in the dark about the fate of their business, with the clock ticking on any deal with a potential buyer.
The more time that goes by, the more likely Lehman is to lose bankers and advisory mandates to rivals.
But rival investment bankers in Hong Kong on Thursday said they expected British bank Barclays to buy all or part of Lehman’s Asia business, after it agreed on Wednesday to pay $1.75 billion to rescue Lehman’s core U.S. business.
Lehman is hoping to sell its Asian operations as one entity to maximize value and secure as many jobs as possible, but it may have to divide the business up into different geographic groups, said a source with direct knowledge of the sale, who asked not to be identified because the information is not public.
The source said Lehman was interviewing four candidates to advise it on the sale, including Goldman Sachs, Rothschild and Lazard Ltd.
“Interest for Lehman is very high,” said the source.
In terms of mergers and acquisition advisory and equity capital markets, Barclays is not a major player in Asia, while Lehman has aggressively built its investment banking presence in the region.
“I would be surprised if Barclays did not buy the Asia business,” said an investment banker at a competing bank who did not want to be identified pay day loans. “It’s not going to cost them much.”