Lehman Private Equity Breaking Up?
Lehman Brothers this afternoon announced that it is selling its Investment Management division to Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman for $2.15 billion. The deal includes Neuberger Berman, the fixed income unit and all non-direct alternative investment activities. What that leaves out is direct alternatives, which includes Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking (buyouts), Lehman Brothers Venture Capital and Lehman Brothers Real Estate. As of this moment, it is not clear what will become of the direct businesses. Assuming a bankruptcy judge approves the larger sale to Bain and H&F, the most likely scenario would be that each group would spin out into independent entities. It also is possible that the three could stick together as an independent alternatives house, which could be attractive due to certain shared services. In either case, the groups would have to decide what to do about existing funds, which were raised with large minority nuts from Lehman that will no longer be honored. They may just decrease the fund sizes, keep them steady with pro rata increases from third-party investors or cut off the funds and raise new ones. It’s also important to note that there is a third scenario, whereby the three groups somehow get reabsorbed by the Investment Management unit. Not sure how that would work, but I’ve been told the situation is fluid enough that it should not be discounted. The Lehman alternatives group had been run by
