Barclays seen set to buy some Lehman assets

By Steve Slater and Lorraine Turner

LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays agreed to buy bankrupt Lehman Brothers' main investment banking assets for about $2 billion (1.12 billion pounds), a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

The deal, which is expected to be announced later on Tuesday or early Wednesday, would unite two big debt trading houses and could stanch the flow of customers fleeing Lehman in the wake of the largest bankruptcy in history.

The deal would include Lehman's core U.S. broker-dealer business, including equity, fixed income, M&A advisory and other assets, the source said.

Barclays won't be buying any of Lehman's real estate, real-estate-backed securities, derivatives positions or over-the-counter trades, The Wall Street Journal reported.

As many as 9,000 Lehman employees would find jobs with the bank, the newspaper reported on its website.

The deal will also not include Lehman's investment management division, which includes fund manager Neuberger Berman. On Monday, a person familiar with the situation said a sale of that unit was also close to being announced.

Private equity firms Bain Capital, Hellman & Friedman and Clayton, Dubilier and Rice have placed bids for the unit, the person said. Lehman had planned to sell a majority stake in the investment management unit before filing for bankruptcy, but is now selling the whole unit.

Earlier on Tuesday, Barclays had confirmed it was in talks to buy some of Lehman's assets on terms that would need to be attractive to its shareholders.