Barclays confirms interest in Lehman Brothers’ assets

by Gill Montia

Story link: Barclays confirms interest in Lehman Brothers’ assets

Barclays has confirmed that it may buy certain assets of bankrupt Wall Street bank, Lehman Brothers.

According to reports in The Times and Telegraph, Lehman’s mergers and acquisitions and securities operations would have considerable appeal to Barclays, which has assured its shareholders that it will only proceed with acquisitions on terms that they would find attractive.

Barclays was at the heart of attempts to rescue the investment bank over the weekend but the group, together with Bank of America, walked away from discussions when the US Government refused to issue guarantees on Lehman Brothers’ debt.

Lehman filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday; PricewaterhouseCoopers has been appointed administrators in the UK and as staff at Canary Wharf cleared their desks yesterday, they were warned that funds may not be available to pay wages that are due at the end of next week.

Under US bankruptcy proceedings Lehman Brothers can still sell its assets, despite having applied for its Chapter 11 protection.