CC advises Barclays on $1.75bn Lehman assets purchase

Clifford Chance (CC) has advised longstanding client Barclays on its purchase of a $1.75bn (£1bn) chunk of collapsed investment bank Lehman Brothers.

CC, which had been advising Barclays on its abandoned bid to acquire Lehman outright, fielded a team lead by corporate partner Guy Norman, with corporate partner Patrick Sarch, regulatory partner Chris Bates, restructuring partner Nick Frome and capital markets partner Ed Bradley assisting.

Barclays has agreed to purchase a chunk of core assets from Lehman Brothers, including the fixed income, research departments, equities sales, and investment banking and trading operations in North America.

The UK bank was just one of three investors looking to fully rescue Lehman Brothers, but backed out of making any commitment late last week. Lehman collapsed at the beginning of the week (15 September).

Other potential investors included the Korean Development Bank and Bank of America, which bought out Merrill Lynch for $50bn (£28m) on Monday (14 September).

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton are advising Barclays in the US, with banking partner Victor Lewkow, restructuring partners Lindsee Granfield and Lisa Schweitzer, M&A partner David Leinwand, capital markets partner Duane McLaughlin, leveraged finance partner Meme Peponis and corporate Steve Wilner heading up the team.

CC recently acted for Barclays on its £4.5bn capital raising earlier in July, when the firm took lead role advising the bank.

The UK banking giant announced in June that it was planning to raise the additional capital through a share issue.

Click here for Barclays' announcement of the Lehman deal.

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