Lehman’s outstanding debts total $600bn
By Stacy-Marie Ishmael and agencies
Lehman Brothers Holdings owes more than $600bn to creditors scattered across the US, Europe and Asia, according to the investment bank’s Chapter 11 petition.
The largest unsecured creditors include Citigroup and Bank of New York Mellon, who have around $138bn of exposure to Lehman’s bond debt as indenture trustees.
Indenture trustees act as agents on behalf of bondholders, and while they help enforce the rights of creditors, they are not necessarily creditors themselves.
Bank of New York Mellon has an additional $17bn in exposure to both subordinated and junior subordinated debt, again as an indenture trustee.
Apart from the trustees, Japan’s Aozora Bank, which is part owned by Cerberus, is owed $463m.
But Aozora said its actual exposure to Lehman would be ”significantly lower” due to collateral and hedging, Reuters reported.
”Whatever may appear in a filing by Lehman in terms of gross exposure will be very different from what we have net of our hedges and net of our collateral,” Richard Layton, Aozora’s chief financial officer, told Reuters in a telephone interview on Monday.
Other Japanese banks cited in the filing include Mizuho Corporate Bank, with a $382m exposure in the form of a bank loan, Shinsei Bank with $231m and UFJ Bank with $185m. Japanese markets were closed on Monday for a holiday.
The top European creditor is BNP Paribas, which according to the filing extended a $250m bank loan to the investment bank. Shares in the French bank fell 7.2 per cent to €59.88 in midday trade in Paris.
Other European banks named in the filing include Svenska Handelsbanken, KBC, Lloyds TSB, Standard Chartered and DnB.