CC, Cleary complete Barclays' £1bn Lehman buy
Clifford Chance thrashed out the details of Barclays' acquisition of Lehman Brothers' investment banking and capital markets arms for a consideration of £1bn.
A team led by Cleary Gottlieb Hamilton & Steen and Clifford Chance corporate partner Guy Norman (pictured) finalised the details of the deal late last night.
The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and will see Barclays taking on £40bn worth of assets and estimated trading liabilities of £38bn from the insolvent investment bank.
Norman was assisted by corporate partner Patrick Sarch, finance partner Christopher Bates, capital markets partner Ed Bradley and restructuring partner Nicholas Frome.
It is understood that many of the partners and lawyers involved in the deal would be working from home today and were unavailable for comment.
Lehman's UK administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) partners were advised by Linklaters. Weil Gotshal is advising on the Chapter 11 proceedings in the US (TheLawyer.com, 15 September).
A team from the New York office of Cleary led the New York negotiations on the deal, with Clifford Chance assisting. The group, led by partners Victor Lewkow, David Leinwand and Duane McLaughlin are advising Barclays on the US aspects of its acquisition of Lehman assets.
Barclays acquisition is to be made for a cash consideration of £0.14bn, as well as a further £0.8bn Lehman's New York headquarters and two data centres at close to their current market value.
Barclays board expects that certain Barclays shareholders will subscribe to an additional £0.6bn in Barclays shares.
Barclays President Robert Diamond Jr said in a statement: "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for Barclays. We will now have the best team and most productive culture across the world’s major financial markets, backed by the resources of an integrated universal bank.
The Clifford Chance team also included corporate associates Carl Blake and Rebecca Flanagan, and capital markets associate Inigo Esteve.
