TOKYO (AFP) — Japan's top broker Nomura Holdings Inc. will pay just two dollars for bankrupt Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers' operations in Europe and the Middle East, according to a report.
Nomura negotiated such a low price because it will acquire only Lehman's employees in the regions, and not its stocks, bonds or other assets, the Nikkei business daily reported on Friday without naming its sources.
The Japanese broker is paying 225 million dollars for Lehman's Asian operations, acquiring staff, trading systems and other equipment, it added.
Nomura is expected to spend "tens of billions of yen" (hundreds of millions of dollars) in personnel costs to retain Lehman staff in Asia, Europe and the Middle East, the newspaper said.
Because it is not acquiring the assets, it cannot take over Lehman's client accounts, so it is quickly arranging new accounts for former customers of the failed Wall Street giant, it added.
The Japanese broker said earlier this week it would offer employment to all 3,000 Lehman Brothers' workers in Asia while retaining "a significant proportion" of its 2,500 staff in the European and Middle Eastern regions.
It has not disclosed how much it paid for the Lehman operations.
According to the Nikkei, Nomura apparently offered to keep on far more Lehman employees than other potential buyers such as Britain's Barclays PLC, which snapped up Lehman's US operations including its Manhattan skyscraper.
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