Barclays in talks to acquire part of Lehman Brothers

A day after filing for the world's biggest ever bankruptcy, embattled financial giant Lehman Brothers on Tuesday got a helping hand with British banking giant Barclays saying it is in talks for buying out some Lehman businesses.

"Barclays confirms that it is discussing with Lehman Brothers the possible acquisition of certain Lehman Brothers assets on terms that would be attractive to Barclays shareholders," Barclays said in a statement.

Barclays said that a further announcement would be made in due course but there was no assurance that the talks would result into a deal.

Over this weekend, Barclays had walked out of talks to acquire Lehman Brothers, after which the 158-year-old investment banking major filed for bankruptcy protection from its creditors, to whom it owes over 600 billion dollars.

The investment bank, which has survived many a financial crisis over the past century, had also said it is trying to sell some of its key businesses such as investment management and broker-dealer operations.

The filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection allows a company to restructure while creditor claims are held at bay.

Lehman said in the filing that it had assets of 639 billion dollars and debt of 613 billion dollars as of May 31.

The development is being billed as the world's biggest bankruptcy filing ever. Prior to this, WorldCom had been the biggest bankruptcy filing with 41 billion dollars of debt and 107 billion dollars of assets in 2002, dwarfing that of Enron, which had gone bankrupt with an asset of over 63 billion dollars in 2001.

Prior to filing, Lehman had also tried a sale to Bank of America, which on Monday announced a 50-billion dollar acquisition of another credit crisis-embattled financial services major Merrill Lynch.

After plunging to less than one-twentieth of its value in the past one year -- from 82 dollars to below four dollars before the bankruptcy filing, the shares of Lehman on Monday plunged to below one dollar level.

However, the shares saw a relief rally today with a rise of over five per cent to 0.22 dollars in morning trade.

Lehman was founded in 1850 by three German immigrants in the US and currently has a workforce of over 25,000 employees across the world.

The investment bank has kept its broker-dealer subsidiaries and other units out of the bankruptcy protection filing, as it is trying to sell these businesses.