Neuberger team wins Lehman biz
A group of Neuberger Berman LLC managers and senior professionals has won control of bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s asset management business following an auction in New York’s federal bankruptcy court.
A group of Neuberger Berman LLC managers and senior professionals has won control of bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s asset management business following an auction in New York’s federal bankruptcy court.
Neuberger will be spun off from bankrupt New York-based Lehman Brothers into a stand-alone company.
The financial terms of the winning bid were not revealed.
The Neuberger Berman team will own 51% of the stand-alone firm, to be called Neuberger Investment Management, with Lehman retaining 49% control.
The chief executive of the new company will be Lehman’s global head of investment management, George Walker, who is a second cousin of President Bush.
The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2009.
The bid was selected over a previous $2.15 billion offer made by private-equity firms Bain Capital LLC of Boston and Hellman & Friedman LLC of San Francisco since it “offered greater value and certainty of closing,” according to Jim Fogarty, Lehman’s chief operating officer.
New York-based Neuberger Berman had $160 billion in assets under management Nov. 30.
The asset management arm of Lehman Brothers was valued at around $7 billion in August by analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., a unit of New York-based AllianceBernstein LP.
Lehman acquired Neuberger Berman in 2003 for $3.2 billion.
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