Nomura to acquire Lehman Bros` Indian BPO unit

Nomura Holdings is planning to acquire Lehman Brothers Holding's Indian back-office operations, including its information technology (IT) operations, Japan's Nikkei business daily said. The Nikkei reported that Nomura, Japan's biggest securities firm, would pay several billion yen to acquire the Mumbai-based operations, which employs more than 2,000 employees. Nomura has already accepted about 3,000 workers from Lehman Brothers' Asia-Pacific units and some 2,500 employees from Europe and the Middle-East, the Nikkei newspaper said. Lehman Brothers' Indian back-office operations, based in the financial hub of Mumbai, handles trading settlement duties as well as IT research and development.

Indian banks post Rs 410 cr MTM losses

The Indian banking sector saw a mark-to-market losses of around Rs 410 crore due to their investment in instruments of troubled US financial giants like Lehman Brothers and AIG, 75 per cent of which is accounted by ICICI Bank alone.

"In terms of MTM losses of the banking sector including private sector, stood at Rs 410 crore owing to financial crisis in some of financial institutions. Of this, ICICI Bank alone has MTM loss of about Rs 309 crore," a senior Finance Ministry official said in New Delhi.

MTM is based on the market value of underlying securities and keep varying. MTM is a notional loss but it would be reflected in the balance sheet.

Besides, some state-owned banks had exposure in the instruments of these troubled US financial institutions to the tune of Rs 234 crore.

"Exposure of a few public sector banks to credit-linked and floating rate notes of Lehman Brothers and other troubled institutions is about USD 52 million," he said.

In his first reaction after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the bailout of the largest US insurer AIG, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said India's financial institutions were on a sound foundation.

As far as PSU banks are concerned, in which the government is a majority owner, he had said they didn't have any ‘undue exposure’.

"In fact, many of them have no exposure at all. Whatever exposures they have are in accordance with RBI's prudential guidelines," he said, adding, ICICI Bank had some exposure which it has disclosed.

The London subsidiary of ICICI Bank had USD 80-million exposure in the senior bonds of Lehman Brothers.

ICICI Bank Joint Managing Director Chanda Kochhar had said the investment by the subsidiary constitutes less than one per cent of the total assets of the subsidiary and less than 0.1 per cent of the consolidated total assets of the ICICI Group.

On June 30, 2008, ICICI Bank and its subsidiaries had consolidated total assets of Rs 484,643 crore.

The Finance Minister had said while the country's banking system was reasonably insulated from the global crisis, the credit crunch could have some effect in India as well.

"If there is a credit crunch in the rest of the world, it will, to some extent, impact the credit availability in Indian market. RBI, day before yesterday, took steps to provide liquidity to the banks," he had said.

Chinese Banks exposure to Lehman

Two more Chinese banks have reported holding Lehman Brothers bonds, raising total Lehman debt disclosed by Chinese lenders to USD 634.8 million.

China Construction Bank Corp, the country's second-largest commercial lender by assets, said in a statement issued through the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it holds USD 191.4 million in Lehman bonds. That was the biggest exposure reported so far for a Chinese bank to the failed Wall Street house.

A midsize lender, China CITIC Bank Corp said in a separate statement it has USD 76 million in Lehman bonds.

Analysts say the impact of Lehman's failure on Chinese banks should be limited.

Other state-owned banks have reported holding Lehman debt but say it accounts for only a tiny fraction of their assets.

China's biggest lender, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., says it owns Lehman bonds worth USD 151.8 million.

Construction Bank's Lehman holdings are 0.29 percent of net assets and should have no effect on its financial position, the bank said. It said the bank would make allowances for possible losses.

Bank of China Ltd., the country's No. 3 lender by assets, says it owns Lehman bonds worth USD 75.6 million. Bank of Communications Ltd, the country's fifth-largest commercial lender, says it has USD 70 million in Lehman bonds.

Another midsize lender, China Merchants Bank Ltd., says its Lehman bonds are valued at USD 70 million.

Last week, China's Hua An Fund Management Co, warned of possible heavy losses due to Lehman's failure. Hua An said its International Balanced Fund is invested in notes provided by Lehman that are linked to stocks, bonds and other assets.

Lehman bust - job impact

Collapse of the Lehman Brothers in the world's biggest ever bankruptcy story may have sent thousands of its employees flocking the job market, but the 158-year-old American investment bank giant still seems to be in hiring mood.

Once known as one of the favourite places to work in the financial services space, especially due to its fat pay packages, Lehman Brothers had a workforce of close to 26,000 employees at the last count. But its filing for bankruptcy protection on September 15 saw nearly all its employees on a lookout for new employers.

However, Lehman Brothers seems to be continuing with its hiring activities, as it has posted at least four new job vacancies for the US after its bankruptcy filing. These vacancies are for positions like Investor Accounting Specialist, Foreclosure Specialist and Default Supervisor, and they seem to have been posted on the bank's website a day after the bankruptcy filing or later.

In addition, Lehman Brothers has over a dozen recruitment events lined up across the world through September, October and November.

The interested candidates, if any, can register for these recruiting events and presentations in the career section of Lehman's website.

"These events are intended for those who are applying for early years programmes, internships or first year Full Time Analyst/Associate programme hires," it says on its website.

One such event, "Equities and Fixed Income PhD Recruiting Presentation", is scheduled for as early as September 23 in Massachusetts and is for Harvard and MIT students in their penultimate or final year of their PhD programme.

Ten such recruitment events are lined up for the UK, while there are three others for Italy through October and November.

While two vacancies -- Investor Accounting Specialist and Supervisor Default positions -- were posted on September 16, it posted one vacancy each on September 17 and 18 for Foreclosure Specialist and Investor Accounting Specialist posts, respectively.

However, there have been no new job postings after its bankruptcy filing for Asia-Pacific and Europe and Middle East regions. Lehman has posted at least four job vacancies in September for India, where it employs over 2,500 people, but all of them were posted before the bankruptcy filing.

However, a number of job portals continue to have close to 20 recruitment ads for Lehman's India operations for positions like Test Engineer (QA), Java Senior Developer, Prime Services Analyst, Project Manager, Capital Resource Analyst and Vice President - Global Sales & Banking Technology.

One of Indian job portals, naukri.com, vacancies are also there for the posts of Recruitment Manager and Recruitment Executives at Lehman Brothers. However, these job website postings are believed to have been put before the bank's collapse.

Lehman set up BPO operations in India in 2005 and according to the fact-sheet of the firm, the centre saw the number of employees going up by eight times by the middle of this year and had declared its plans to grow the operations. In fact, it was recruiting till as recently as couple of months back.

The company has in all about 2,500 people working for it in India, including those in the BPO unit. Recent news reports have said the company had asked a section of its BPO staff to quit.

In its new job postings for the US, Lehman says that the job profile of a "Foreclosure Specialist" would involve monitoring "the actions of the Foreclosure Attorneys... to ensure that all paperwork needed by the Attorneys is completed timely and accurately. To update internal systems for checks and balances and to apply money as appropriately directed."

Besides, the Investor Accounting Specialist would be responsible for the monthly reconciliation of investor custodial accounts and clearing accounts, while Supervisor (Default) would be responsible for the overall operation of the Collection Department.

Lehman has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which allows a company to restructure while creditor claims are held at bay.

A number of the company's employees are already said to have joined other companies, including its Mergers Advisor Group Chairman and co-head Mark Shafir, who has joined Citigroup.

Sharif continued at Lehman through its bankruptcy filing and is said to have helped negotiate the USD 1.75-billion sale of its US investment banking business to British banking major Barclays.

Hundreds of Lehman investors protest in Hong Kong

Hundreds of angry Lehman Brothers investors rallied in Hong Kong today to demand the government help secure their money after the US investment bank collapsed this past week.

The investors, many of them nearing or at retirement age, waved investment papers and chanted slogans outside the territory's government headquarters as they accused regulators of not doing enough to safeguard their interests.

Lehman invested in DLF, Unitech

Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy is likely to cost Indian real estate dear. It may impact the financial major’s existing investments worth $500 million in realty firms, including DLF and Unitech, besides drying up another $500-million worth of potential investment which was expected to flow into Unitech’s Mumbai projects.

The news of Lehman’s collapse brought the BSE realty index down by 7.65% on Monday, while the benchmark Sensex declined 3.35%. Both DLF and Unitech fell 7.5%.

Lehman’s fall signals a deepening of credit crisis for Indian developers, who have lately been battling falling sales, rising cost of construction and tightening credit. It is expected that the US-based firm is likely to go for a fire sale of its assets.

The financial services major was very bullish on India and was among the active investors in Indian real estate. Early this year, it had leased out an office space in Mumbai paying Rs 1 crore per month as rental. This would divert a part of fresh funds seeking to invest in Indian realty.

This is because global fund houses have country-allocations. And as they buyout Lehman’s stake in some of the Indian assets, they will end up diverting some of the fresh funds-in-hand to existing assets rather than investing in new projects.

“Lehman’s departure will impact future cash flows of real estate companies. In a market situation like today’s, it will be all the more difficult for the firms to raise funds,” says Karvy Stock Broking vice-president Ambareesh Baliga.

Lehman invested $200 million in DLF promoter group company DLF Assets last year and bought 50% stake in Unitech’s Mumbai project for $175 million a few months ago. It had also invested $80 million in Bangalore-based SEZ Gandhi City and was likely to hike its share to $300 million.

Lehman’s other investments include a 40% stake in an IT park project of Peninsula Land in Hyderabad for an initial investment of Rs 50 crore. It had also teamed up with Mumbai-based developer HDIL to bid for the redevelopment of Asia’s largest slum Dharavi.

Wherever the developers had received fund, they are safe. But where the funds are yet to come, the developers could get stuck. Some analysts say a distress sale by Lehman will impact the valuation of existing projects.

DLF CFO Ramesh Sanka had earlier told ET that Lehman’s sale of investments in DAL would not impact DAL’s valuation. Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra said that his company had already received funds. So, the company won’t get impacted by Lehman’s bankruptcy.

Some industry executives say that FDI norms of a three-year lock-in period may prevent Lehman from making an immediate sale. But analysts argue that the lock-in period in case of bankruptcy may not hold.

Via ECONOMIC TIMES

Lehman India sell off

Lehman Brothers' move to file for bankruptcy wiped off more than Rs 2,000 crore from the market valuation of those Indian companies in which the US financial major has made equity investments.

Lehman itself recorded a loss of more than Rs 50 crore on its investments in India, which is nearly 10 per cent of its current holding worth an estimated over Rs 500 crore.

The loss would have been much higher if Lehman had not started offloading its equity holding in Indian companies late last month.

In a major selling spree that started on August 21, Lehman has sold shares worth close to Rs 400 crore in nearly 10 companies, including NIIT Ltd, Cranes Software, Amtek Auto, Amtek India, Fedders Llyod, Northgate, Mastek, Triveni Engg and Prajay Engg.

Prior to this sell-off, Lehman's Indian equity portfolio is estimated to have been worth more than Rs 1,000 crore, which has now nearly halved to about Rs 500 crore.

Most of the shares offloaded by Lehman in India, including those in NIIT, Cranes, Amtek Auto, Amtek India and Northgate, has been purchased by Deutsche Bank, according to the bulk and block deal data available with the bourses.

Besides the 10 companies where Lehman has offloaded its shares, Lehman had equity holding in about two dozen firms at the end of June quarter.

These firms include Spice Communications, Spice Mobile, Anant Raj Industries, Edelweiss Cap, IVRCL Infra, Tulip Telecom, Consolidated Construction, PSL, Orbit Corp, Development Credit Bank, Champagne Indage, Godawari Power, KPIT Cummins, West Coast Paper, IOL Netcom, Dhampur Sugar, Prithvi Info, Golden Tobacco, Emkay Global, Vijay Shanti Builders and Pioneer Embroidery

via FE

Lehman Brothers - India Holdings

Company Name	Holder Type	Holder Name	Holding Date	Percent Shares	No. of Shares
Anant Raj Inds. Ltd.	Public Shareholding	Lehman Brother Asia Ltd A/C Gra Finance Corporation Ltd	30-Jun-08	1.82	5362500
Champagne Indage Ltd.	Public Shareholding	Lehman Brothers Asia Ltd A/C	30-Jun-08	1.55	236574
Consolidated Construction Consortium Ltd.	Public Shareholding	Lehman Brothers Asia Ltd A/C Gra Fin Corp	30-Jun-08	1.36	503000
Development Credit Bank Ltd.	Public Shareholding	Lehman Brothers Asia Ltd A/C Gra Finance Corporation Ltd	30-Jun-08	3.04	5301900
Edelweiss Capital Ltd.	Locked-In Shares	Lehman Brothers Netherlands Horions B V	30-Jun-08	1.8	1350000
	Public Shareholding	Lehman Brothers Netherlands Horions Bv	30-Jun-08	1.8	1350000
Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd.	Public Shareholding	Lehman Brothers Asia Ltd A/C Capital	30-Jun-08	4.05	982134
Godawari Power & Ispat Ltd.	Public Shareholding	Lehman Brothers Asia Ltd	30-Jun-08	1.47	413832
Golden Tobacco Ltd.	Public Shareholding	Lehman Brothers Asia Ltd	30-Jun-08	1.7	300000
I O L Netcom Ltd.	Public Shareholding	Lehman Brothers Asia Limited A/C Capital	30-Jun-08	1.46	400000
I V R C L Infrastructures & Projects Ltd.	Public Shareholding	Lehman Brothers Asia Ltd A/S Gra Finance Corporation Ltd	30-Jun-08	1.2	1600000
K P I T Cummins Infosystems Ltd.	Public Shareholding	Lehman Brothers Asia Ltd A/C Gra	30-Jun-08	1.11	862823
Opto Circuits (India) Ltd.	Locked-In Shares	Lehman Brothers Asia Ltd A/C Lb India Holding	30-Jun-08	0.64	600000
Orbit Corporation Ltd.	Public Shareholding	Lehman Brothers Asia Ltd A/C Gra Finance Corporation Ltd	30-Jun-08	4.82	1750000
Pioneer Embroideries Ltd.	Public Shareholding	Lehman Brothers Intl Europe	30-Jun-08	3.23	394356
Prajay Engineers Syndicate Ltd.	Public Shareholding	Lehman Brothers Intl Europe	30-Jun-08	1.15	457701
Prithvi Information Solutions Ltd.	Public Shareholding	Lehman Brothers Asia Ltd A/C Gra Finance Corpor	30-Jun-08	2.63	476160
Spice Communications Ltd.	Locked-In Shares	Lehman Brothers Opportunity Limited	30-Jun-08	1.33	9203339
	Public Shareholding	Lehman Brothers Opportunity Ltd	30-Jun-08	1.33	9203339
Spice Mobiles Ltd.	Public Shareholding	Lehman Brothers Asia Ltd A/C Gra Financec	30-Jun-08	4.41	3289474
West Coast Paper Mills Ltd.	Public Shareholding	Lehman Brothers Asia Ltd A/C Gra Fin	30-Jun-08	4.36	2500065

Lehman Brothers - Holdings in India

Name Quantity

GPIL 413832

EMKAY 982134

GTC 300000

IOLN 400000

KPIT CUMMINS 862823

ORBIT 1750000

Anant Raj 5362500

DCB 5300000

SPIC MOBILE 3289774

CCL 503000

Prithvi 476160

West Coast 2500000

Kalpataru 350000

IVRCL 1600000

Pioneee Emb 394356

Edelweiss 1350000

SPice Tele 9203000

Philips Carbon 1000000

PSL 980408

TULIP 811004

IOLN 585000

Moser Bear 2252000

Ruchi Soya 2270000

Mastek 1423406

Fedders LLyod 1505918

Dhampur Sugar 2277272

NorthGate Tech 1454904

Triveni Eng 5873053

NIIT 2117926

United phos 2489609

CAIRNSOFT 3427000

AMTEK AUTO 2947000

KPIT CUMMINS 5700000

PLEX 455625

GATI 1112000

UNVERIFIED

Lehman Brothers - Inflation in India to be strong

Anti-inflationary measures are unlikely to turn India into a slow growing economy, while other Asian nations could face the situation of rising prices and economic stagnation, a latest report says.

"We do not believe that India would be affected significantly in a stagflation scenario and growth would remain strong in relative terms...," global research firm Lehman Brothers said in a recent research report.

However, even as the economic growth is projected to remain strong, interest-rate sensitive stocks could be adversely impacted during stagflation situation in Asia.

Stagflation refers to a situation when inflation is rising and the economic growth is simultaneously slowing down.

The negative impact is likely to be felt by interest rate-sensitive stocks or by companies that are not in a position to pass on cost pressures to consumers, Lehman said.

Further, investment spending is unlikely to witness a substantial slowdown primarily on account of significant shortages in key sectors such as steel and power.

The report pointed out that risks out of a stagflation scenario would be high for the banking sector, infrastructure, automobile and cement firms.

"The risks are significant for part of the banking sector, companies with a high proportion of fixed-price contracts and companies with high energy usage without the ability to pass on increased costs," it said.

Lehman noted that in India inflation would remain on the higher side for some more time due to the base effect -- which relates to the inflation data of the corresponding week in the previous year.

Given particular prices in the current week, inflation would turn out to be higher, if it was a small number in the previous year, but would be less, if it was high a year ago.

In addition, the report said that inflationary headwinds would lead to increased fiscal deficit and negatively impact the country`s expansion plans.

"One of the major reasons for India`s premium expansion has been the reduction in fiscal deficit, a process which could be derailed in the short term due to inflationary headwinds," it added.

The government has initiated fiscal and monetary measures to lessen the effects of inflation on consumers. However, according to the report, some of these measures do not reflect the "true market economics."

"If the inflation period is prolonged, we expect the government to start passing on some of the suppressed price increases (especially those relating to crude oil and fertilisers) in small doses.”

However, we do not expect this anytime soon, given the proximity of the elections, the report pointed out.

Lehman Brothers - Industrial Production, Macquarie - Reliance Industries, Anagram - Sugar

Download here

Lehman Brothers - Industrial Production

Download here

Thanks Sulagna

Lehman Brothers - Economies

Download here

Lehman Brothers - India Report

Download here

Thanks Sulagna