Lehman Brothers to rehire 480 employees

New York, Oct 31: Lehman Brothers on Thurday, Oct 23 is planning to hire some 450 ex-employees to assist in winding down its business. Lehman said with the current workforce there will be more expenses and delay.

Barclays PLC, which bought the company's core US assets last month, has continued the employment of more than 9,000 Lehman workers. Barclays and Lehman have a transition services agreement whereby former employees of the investment bank will help it wind down its business. But Lehman said in court documents on Thursday that those employees are unable to devote the time and resources necessary to help Lehman wind-down its businesses. Also if Barclays chooses to reduce the size of its work force acquired from Lehman, or the transition services agreement expires, Lehman said it would lose access to those employees.

"If the debtors and their advisors are going to preserve and maximize the value of the assets and transactions, they need employees who are dedicated and have an interest in preserving and maximizing values," Lehman said in the filing as it sought approval to hire the workers.

As of Oct 24, Lehman said its workforce was comprised of about 140 employees and a team of about 125 from restructuring firm Alvarez & Marsal. One of the firm's founders, Bryan Marsal, is serving as chief restructuring officer of Lehman.

Lehman said it needs to hire workers quickly to avoid the risk of losing information that would help it unwind thousands of complex derivative transactions. Lehman said it was seeking to hire former Lehman workers because the tasks to unwind the business require specialized knowledge.

OneIndia News