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London: Japan's Nomura Holdings Inc agreed to buy Lehman Brothers' equities and investment banking business in Europe and the Middle East in its second swoop on the bankrupt US bank's overseas assets in 24 hours.
Japan's biggest investment bank said it expects to retain "a significant proportion" of the 2,500 staff employed in the businesses.
It did not say how much it would pay, but Sadeq Sayeed, senior adviser to the bank and involved in the deal, said it was a "nominal" amount and that Nomura will not take on any trading assets or trading liabilities.
Lehman filed for bank-ruptcy protection last week. Britain's Barclays Plc bought its core US broker-dealer business and Nomura bought its Asia-Pacific arm on Monday. The deals are expected to save most jobs in each region.
Nomura was the front-runner to buy the European arm after entering exclusive talks with Lehman's administrators in Europe, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), on Monday.
It adds to a run of big deals by major Japanese banks, which have been less hit by financial turmoil and asset writedowns in the past year than rivals, and are snapping up assets from or injecting capital at banks hit by the credit crunch.
Japan's biggest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, is planning to buy up to a fifth of Morgan Stanley for up to $8.5 billion.
Nomura, the first Japan-ese securities company to establish an overseas office 81 years ago, said it had struck "two transformational deals" in less than 24 hours after failing with its organic expansion plan in the last two decades.
"In the last 20 years Nomura has not punched its weight in the international market," Sayeed told reporters in a conference call. He said the bank had been looking at overseas acquisition opportunities "for quite some time" and moved quickly to snap up Lehman's assets.
"The world of investment banking has changed in a short time because of mistakes made in the last five years. Nomura has not made many of these mistakes," he said.
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