Lehman needs deal on assets with European unit

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (LEHMQ.PK) has filed court papers seeking approval to communicate with its European operations for help unwinding billions of dollars in assets that "sit unmanaged" and at risk of losing significant value.

The proposed agreement, negotiated over a four-week period, would be struck among Lehman's U.S. and European facilities, its bankruptcy administrators, and its asset management business, Neuberger Berman Holdings LLC.

In court documents, Shai Waisman, a Weil Gotshal & Manges attorney representing Lehman said "the flow of critical information has ceased" between Lehman's New York and London facilities following separate Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings.

Lehman says it has been severed from Europe-based assets, employees and information systems that "remain critical to (Lehman's) operations and efforts to maximize the value of their estates."

Lehman has a "large book of business in the United Kingdom, consisting of more than one million trading positions and billions of dollars in receivables to the estates," the documents said.

The company cannot trade or evaluate these positions without help from Lehman Europe and it needs the agreement approved before bankruptcy administrators transfer or lay off knowledgeable employees in asset sales, the document said.

"In essence, the Debtors' enormous book of business in Europe, worth billions of dollars, sits unmanaged because the Debtors cannot access the employees and information systems that once controlled it," the documents said.

Under the proposed agreement, the two operations would allow employees who provide services for the other party to communicate, and would take "reasonable steps" including bonuses payments, to retain those employees.

For a 24-month period, the two entities would have access to each other's facilities, information systems and books and records and would grant each other a royalty-free licence to any software or technology needed for business operations.