FACTBOX: Lehman plans sale, spin-off of assets

Wed Sep 10, 2008 8:55am EDT
 
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank, announced on Wednesday plans to sell a majority stake in its investment management division and spin off real estate assets, as it posted a preliminary quarterly net loss of $3.9 billion.

These are the details of Lehman's plan:

SPIN-OFF OF COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE ASSETS

-- The bank plans to spin off to its shareholders $25 billion to $30 billion of its commercial real estate portfolio.

-- The assets will be separated in a publicly traded company in the first quarter of 2009.

-- The new company will be called Real Estate Investments Global.

-- Lehman said the spin-off would strengthen its balance sheet and preserve the value of the commercial real estate portfolio for shareholders.

-- It said REI Global would be appropriately capitalized through the transfer of common equity and provision of debt financing.

-- REI Global's primary focus will be to maximize shareholder returns by selling assets or holding them to maturity.

-- REI Global will not make investments in new assets, and any excess cash flow is expected to be returned to shareholders.

TO SELL INTEREST IN INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT UNIT

-- The bank plans to sell a 55 percent stake in a subset of its investment management division (IMD).

-- The subset includes the asset management, private equity and wealth management businesses.

-- The subset excludes Lehman's middle market institutional distribution business and the minority stakes in external hedge fund managers.

-- Lehman said the sale will enhance its capital base.

-- It said the goodwill related to the asset management unit Neuberger Berman will be eliminated. That is expected to improve Lehman's Tier 1 ratio and generate an increase of more than $3 billion in tangible book value.  Continued...

 

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