Neuberger Berman bid deadline passes

By Megan Davies

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The deadline for counterbids for Lehman Brothers Holding Inc's (LEHMQ.PK) prized Neuberger Berman asset management arm passed on Tuesday.

An agreement to sell the unit to Bain Capital LLC and Hellman & Friedman LLC for $2.15 billion was reached on September 29, two weeks after Lehman filed for bankruptcy protection.

A bankruptcy court set a deadline in October for other parties to submit bids by at noon EST on December 1. The auction was drawn out, extended three times before it ended early Tuesday morning, according to court filings.

Details of the bidding could emerge on Wednesday after a 10 a.m. EST auction scheduled at the law offices of firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP in Manhattan. The process is closed to anyone not involved in the bidding. Weil is representing the Lehman debtors.

One lawyer, who declined to be named, said it should be clear by the end of the day Wednesday who the won the auction.

Once a bid is agreed upon, it has to be approved at a hearing scheduled for December 22 before Judge James Peck at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

Carlyle Group CYL.UL was mentioned as a possible bidder because it said in an Oct 14 court filing that it would participate if the auction process was modified.

But in the end Carlyle did not bid, a source familiar with the matter said.

The sales process for Neuberger has been drawn out. Lehman originally put a majority of the prized asset management arm up for sale in August.

The unit, one of Lehman's best-performing assets, drew interest from a number of private equity bidders such as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co KKR.UL, TPG Capital LP TPG.UL, Silver Lake, Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) and Clayton Dubilier & Rice, sources previously said.

After Lehman's September bankruptcy filing, the whole unit was marketed. Bidders were whittled down to the winning team of Bain Capital LLC and Hellman & Friedman LLC.

Some estimates originally valued the unit between $8 billion and $10 billion, but it is difficult to make comparisons in part because at various points in the sale process, different parts of the business were up for sale.

In addition, values of publicly traded asset managers have declined significantly since the unit was first marketed.

The Dow asset managers' index .DJUSAG has fallen about 25 percent since the deal was announced on September 29.

One potential problem remaining in the auction is the steep fall in the S&P 500 Index .SPX since the Bain and Hellman & Friedman deal was signed.