Lehman staff "upbeat" after buy-out

The move looks to have rescued 2,500 jobs in Europe and the Middle East, many of which are located in the firm’s Bank Street headquarters.

Nomura representatives were in Canary Wharf that same afternoon to announce their plans to staff in the building’s auditorium. The speech was also broadcast on internal TV channels.

One Lehman Brothers employee in Canary Wharf said: “There was no seating space, and there were people standing around the room. The Nomura representatives got a good response.
“Everyone was upbeat and happy because they went from being out of work to being taken over and having a job again.
“There are going to be about 20 Nomura representatives working on site on the final details. They’ll be working hard over the next couple of weeks.
“People are now hoping someone will come in for the fixed income and asset management divisions soon.”

The mood of Lehmans’ workers has brightened since the bank filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last Monday, when many left their offices clutching boxes. But many of the Wall Street giant’s divisions have been cherry-picked by rivals in recent days.

UK bank Barclays bought its US broker dealer unit last week and Nomura revealed a £123million deal for Lehman’s Asian arm on Monday.

The pair were neck-and-neck in a bid to buy its European and Middle East interests early in the week, but Barclays reportedly pulled back on Monday as it was only interested in securing the cash equities division.

Administrator PriceWaterhouse-Coopers reported “tentative” bids for the remaining fixed income and asset management divisions, which employ a further 2,000 Wharf staff.

Joint administrator Dan Schwarzmann said: “This sale, which is conditional on a number of issues, means the continuing employment of around 2,500 Lehman’s staff, a vast number of whom have been working with us to get this unprecedented deal done.”

Nomura is a high-profile name in Japan, but bosses have described its two deals in 24 hours as “transformational” in terms of its world profile. It currently employs 1,500 people in its London office in the City, and a further 400 in Europe.

The firm is expected to run its new acquisitions in Canary Wharf as separate entities until they are stabilised, at which point it will look to consolidate them into the business.

Nomura say it hopes to retain a “significant amount” of its new employees.

CEO Kenichi Watanabe said: "This transaction will significantly extend our European footprint and international reach, enabling us to realise our strategy of delivering Asia to the world. "Our immediate priority is to get the equity and investment banking divisions back in business operating under the Nomura name."