Jobs saved as Nomura acquires Lehman European operations

Japan’s largest brokerage house, Nomura Holdings, is to buy some of Lehman Brothers’ European operations.

Nomura is to acquire Lehman’s investment banking and equities unit in Europe and said it will pay a ‘nominal’ amount for the operations.

The deal, which subject to regulatory approval, comes just 24 hours after Nomura announced it was to buy the Asian operations of Lehman Brothers for $225 million.

Wall Street giant, Lehman Brothers, collapsed last week after rescue talks with Barclays and Bank of America failed.

Commenting on the deal, Kenichi Watanabe, Nomura’s chief executive, said this agreement will considerably expand our presence in Europe, enabling us to realise our strategy of delivering Asia to the world.

Nomura added that a considerable amount of the 2,500 staff employed in Lehman’s businesses, which also include offices in the Middle East, would be re-employed. Nomura said its priority was to get them up and running under the Nomura name.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, who were appointed European administrators, were said to be delighted by the transaction.

Japanese banks are taking advantage of the current turmoil in the financial markets after Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan’s largest bank, announced it would buy a 20% stake in Morgan Stanley for $8.4 billion.

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