Nomura to buy Lehman’s Asian business

Japanese financial services group Nomura has agreed to buy the Asia-Pacific franchise of collapsed investment bank Lehman Brothers. This includes operations in Japan and Australia.
By None

Japanese financial services group Nomura has agreed to buy the Asia-Pacific franchise of collapsed investment bank Lehman Brothers. This includes operations in Japan and Australia.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (LBHI) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on 15 September, although the company’s broker-dealer subsidiaries continued to operate. On 16 September, banking group Barclays agreed to buy Lehman’s North American operations.

The deal with Nomura includes all of Lehman Brothers’ Asia-Pacific franchises and approximately 3,000 employees in multiple locations in the region. Nomura believes Lehman is strong in the areas of M&A, execution services, and non-cash businesses including derivatives, electronic trading and prime brokerage, and that combining the two firms will enable Nomura to strengthen its wholesale business.

Under the terms of the transaction, all Lehman’s employees in the Asia-Pacific region will be offered jobs at Nomura. The deal does not include any of the failed bank’s trading assets or liabilities.

“This is a transformational deal that allows us to bring together the strengths of Nomura and Lehman Brothers to further deliver value to our clients,” said Kenichi Watanabe, Nomura’s president and CEO, in a statement. “It will significantly extend our reach in Asia. We see immediate strategic benefits, delivering the scale and scope to realise our vision to be a world-class investment bank.”

«