U.S. Government Scrambling To Find A Buyer for Lehman Brothers

It has been less than a week since the Fed announced Fannie (FNM) & Freddie’s (FRE) major bailout. Now officials are busy again trying to salvage Lehman Brothers’ (LEH) sinking ship. According to Dealbreaker that broke the news - the New York Federal Reserve and Treasury are scrambling to find a buyer for the New York-based investment firm.

The situation deteriorated further today, after Moody’s Investors Service said the company must find a stronger financial partner. Lehman has been actively shopping itself to potential suitors, including Bank of America (BAC), but potential buyers remain wary about plugging holes in Lehman’s balance sheet, and are increasingly looking to the U.S. government to help backstop future losses. Needless to say the firm’s financial conditions are dire. Two days ago, Lehman’s shares fell nearly 50% on news that Korea Development Bank wasn’t interested in a deal. Today Lehman shares again came under renewed selling pressure trading nearly 42% lower. In addition, several financial co.’s now are avoiding doing business with the firm threatening a replay of what happened to Bear Stearns.

Sometimes the obvious doesn’t take very long which is why the regulators have intervened. The Treasury and the Fed, according to Bloomberg - are working with Lehman on a sale involving several solutions. One possible scenario to resolve the situation may be that of allowing multiple suitors acquiring different pieces of the oldest major firm on Wall Street. Another scenario would be to have the government wave restrictions that have prevented private equity buyers from buying the investment bank, which has suffered huge losses from its business in real estate and mortgages.

While the number of potential acquirers at this point is very few, Moody’s action certainly raises the specter of takeout, potentially at a very low price,” said Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst Guy Moszkowski in a report today.

The situation remains still fluid. The regulators are not giving any guarantees , but are hoping a deal will be in place this weekend before Asian markets open Sept 15.

Shares of Lehman were downgraded on Thursday by several Wall Street firms. LEH shares fell $3.03 (41.79%) during today’s session to $4.22 in NYSE composite trading.

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