Bankruptcy Judge OKs Neuberger Sale
A bankruptcy judge approved the sale of Lehman Brothers Holdings’ prized investment management unit to a group of managers and employees, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The sale was worth $922 million to the Lehman bankruptcy estate and includes the Neuberger Berman money management business. The employee group won a contested auction earlier this month, beating two other bids. The bid from the Bain and Hellman group would have been worth about $745 million. The lawyer said that Crossmark’s bid was worth less. Neuberger Berman was the last big asset to be sold off in the Lehman bankruptcy. Under the deal, the Lehman estate gets 93 percent of $875 million in preferred equity, while the new owners get 7 percent of the preferred shares. The estate would get 49 percent of the common shares while the Neuberger managers would get 51 percent of the common shares in the new company, to be called Neuberger Investment Management.
