No, thats old news, I was referring to this.........Lehman...

No, thats old news, I was referring to this.........

Lehman Australia in shock wind-up
By Katherine JimenezThe Australian September 27, 2008 06:33am+-

LESS than three days after Nomura Holdings threw a lifeline to Lehman Brothers Asia-Pacific, it yesterday cut loose the Australian operations, tipping Lehman Brothers Australia into voluntary administration with total debts of up to $800 million.
Early yesterday morning, Steve Parbery and Neil Singleton of PPB were formally appointed administrators of the local investment bank, after the Japanese financial services company unexpectedly made an offer to only buy the lion's share of Lehman's 120 workforce, office furniture and equipment.

But Mr Parbery told The Australian: "The reason behind our appointment resulted from uncertainty as to the ability to repay debts to Lehman Brother companies in Asia and the United Kingdom, totalling approximately $500 million."

The wind-up of Lehman Brothers Australia (LBA) follows the spectacular collapse of its US parent company last week, which lead to Nomura swooping in on the Asia-Pacific business earlier this week. At the time, it was believed Nomura would keep the Australian business.

The fallout is expected to leave 180 creditors owed about $500 million, but Mr Parbery said there were also "Australian Lehman Brother companies that were owed about $300 million" - taking the total debt to about $800 million.

PPB is expected to begin winding down or disposing the Lehman assets, which includes a real estate portfolio - made up of loans to property developments and equity in joint-ventures - worth about $300 million. LBA is also sitting on about $300 million worth of "financial instruments" related to trading inventory such as bonds, bank notes and fixed income instruments.