Lehman Brothers facing £60bn of claims from UK
Sep 1 2009 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal
ADMINISTRATORS of the UK arm of Lehman Brothers yesterday said they were preparing over £60bn in claims against the US parent as the first anniversary of the bank’s collapse nears.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is working on the mammoth claims of up to US$100bn (£61.7bn) on behalf of more than 100 units that fell under London’s remit, with the winding-up process gathering pace ahead of a looming deadline.
Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection on September 15 last year, tipping world markets into financial crisis and sparking a global recession.
The move saw the US group cut ties with its subsidiaries, such as the UK-headquartered European arm, which left them taking creditor status of the US bank.
Administrators now have until September 22 to meet a deadline for claims, which could run into many hundreds of billions of dollars for creditors around the world.
PwC, which is acting as administrator of Lehman’s UK and European operations, said the claims from the European business alone could run to US$100bn, but were proving “exceptionally complex”.
