Nine years on, another Lehman Brothers bankruptcy

By Tom Hals

WILMINGTON, Del (Reuters) - Two affiliates of Lehman Brothers, the U.S. investment bank that collapsed in 2008 and fuelled an economic crisis, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy late on Thursday, a reminder of the complexity of unwinding a global financial institution.

The two affiliates, Lehman Brothers U.K. Holdings (Delaware) Inc and Lehman Pass-Through Securities Inc, were put into bankruptcy as part of a deal that will generate $485 million cash for the Lehman estate, according to court documents.

The affiliates own residential mortgage-backed securities, real estate and stock in First Data Corp , which helps process credit card transactions, among other assets, according to papers filed in the U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan. Affiliates of Brookfield Asset Management Inc of Canada are buying stakes in the Lehman affiliates, which were put into bankruptcy to carry out the deal.

 

Administrators have spent years winding down Lehman's holdings and have distributed around $147 billion to creditors, according to court records.

More than 100 people still work for Lehman and the case remains one of the largest U.S. bankruptcies, even after the distributions to creditors. The estate holds $7 billion of assets, much of it cash, as it works through hundreds of remaining creditor claims and legal disputes.

Lehman is currently in the midst of a trial, already 42 days long, seeking $2 billion from Citigroup Inc over disputed derivative claims. Citigroup has denied it owes the money to Lehman.

The memory of Lehman's dramatic failure has sparked regulatory efforts to prevent another damaging collapse. On Friday, the U.S. Federal Reserve finalised a rule aimed at making it easier to wind down large banks.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)