LEH Lehman Brothers: U.S. Government to Arrange Sale of Lehman Brothers- Washington Post (4.22 -3.03) -Update-
Washington Post reports that the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve are engineering a sale of LEH through a consortium of private firms. The details are not finalized, but sources familiar with the matter say the purchase is expected to be completed and announced this weekend before Asian markets open Monday morning. LEH, which had been anxious to show it could weather the credit crisis that contributed to the firm's $3.9 bln Q3 loss, said Wednesday that it would sell a majority stake in its investment-management division, slash its dividend and spin off about $30 bln of real estate assets. The announcement did little to calm investors' concerns that LEH, the smallest of the four major Wall Street investment banks, might suffer the same fate as former rival Bear Stearns, which was acquired by J.P. Morgan Chase in a deal regulators brokered in March after a bank run that shook the securities industry.
Washington Post reports that the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve are engineering a sale of LEH through a consortium of private firms. The details are not finalized, but sources familiar with the matter say the purchase is expected to be completed and announced this weekend before Asian markets open Monday morning. LEH, which had been anxious to show it could weather the credit crisis that contributed to the firm's $3.9 bln Q3 loss, said Wednesday that it would sell a majority stake in its investment-management division, slash its dividend and spin off about $30 bln of real estate assets. The announcement did little to calm investors' concerns that LEH, the smallest of the four major Wall Street investment banks, might suffer the same fate as former rival Bear Stearns, which was acquired by J.P. Morgan Chase in a deal regulators brokered in March after a bank run that shook the securities industry.

