Standard Chartered, Barclays and Nomura are battling to acquire the flagship Asian operations of Lehman Brothers, the collapsed US investment bank. Top executives of the three spent the weekend in talks with Lehman trying to assess the value of its regional assets, including its investment banking, fixed income and equity divisions. Each was expected to submit bids at about midnight Sunday in Hong Kong. People close to the discussions said there had also been preliminary inquiries from Samsung of South Korea and Citic, the Chinese conglomerate. Barclays has already signed a deal to acquire Lehman’s North American investment banking and capital markets businesses, and is vying with Nomura to purchase some of Lehman’s European assets. However, StanChart’s inclusion will surprise many as it hasn’t up to now flagged interest in investment banking acquisitions. The management of Lehman’s Asian operations had hired Rothschild to advise on the possible sale of operations in countries such as China, India, Japan and Australia, which encompass myriad business entities and span multiple court and regulatory jurisdictions. KPMG is also party to the discussions after being appointed as provisional liquidators of Lehman’s HK operations.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Monday, September 22nd, 2008 at 5:33 and is filed under Capital markets, M&A. Tagged with barclays, Lehman Brothers, nomura, standard chartered. Edit this entry.