Diamond: Lehman creditors gained from Barclays bid
Barclays president Bob Diamond said yesterday Lehman creditors fared better under his bank’s purchase of Lehman Brothers core US brokerage business than they would have if the assets had been sold on the open market.
The testimony came on the second day of a trial over whether the British bank received an unfair $11bn windfall when it acquired parts of Lehman after the investment bank’s collapse in September 2008.
Lehman wants the judge to review the sale.
The trial, held at Manhattan’s bankruptcy court for the Southern District of New York, has brought the testimony of the top architects of the Lehman purchase. The deal was approved in September 2008 after a chaotic few days of negotiations that took place as US markets were collapsing.
Barclays chief executive John Varley also took the stand.