Selling process starts for Lehman's $15bn European portfolio

Administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers has started gathering expressions of interest in Lehman Brothers' $15bn European property portfolio. The advisory firm said it has made 'considerable progress' in identifying the assets owned in Europe by the US investment bank which will need to be sold in order to repay creditors. PricewaterhouseCoopers was appointed in September as administrator of the portfolio held by the US bank, which recently filed for administration.

Lehman Brothers has more than 200 subsidiaries or joint ventures in Europe, with activities covering both property investment and development worth about $15bn. 'These properties are principally located in the UK, but also in Sweden, France, Finland, Spain, Croatia and several additional European countries,' the company said.

It added: 'In addition, there are non-performing loan and mortgage portfolios, together with a limited number of private equity interests and shareholdings in listed businesses.'

PricewaterCoopers said that the review of the portfolio will not be completed for several weeks, but added that it has begun gathering all expressions of interest.

Earlier in September, Lehman Brothers agreed to sell its North American investment banking and capital markets operations to British bank Barclays. The deal, subject to US court approval, will include trading assets worth £40bn and trading liabilities valued at £38bn. Barclays will pay £140mln in cash for the deal and will spend around £800mln to acquire the New York headquarters of Lehman Brothers as well as its two data centres.

'This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for Barclays,' said Barclays’ president Robert E Diamond Jr.