Nomura and Barclays eye Lehman Europe unit

Tokyo/London: Japan's Nomura Holdings is interested in buying the European operations of US investment bank Lehman Brothers, according to reports on Sunday, while Barclays will bid for parts of the business, a person familiar with the matter said.

Barclays executives said last week they were interested in parts of Lehman's business in Europe, and the source said the bank will pitch an offer for parts to meet an indicative deadline set by its administrators.

Japan's largest brokerage Nomura will bid for Leh-man's European business, Japan's Mainichi newspaper and Britain's Sunday Times reported. It particularly wants the merger and acquisitions (M&A) and stock trading divisions, the Japanese paper said.

Barclays bought Lehman's core US broker-dealer business in a $1.75 billion deal last Tuesday, and executives said the next day they would consider buying more Lehman assets outside the US, such as some equities and equity capital markets businesses.

Barclays and PricewaterhouseCoopers, the administrators for Lehman's Eur-opean business, declined to comment.

A spokesman for Nomura said: "We are always exploring options, however we do not comment on market rumours."

PwC is expected to move quickly as further delays would cause Lehman to lose customers and staff.

Mainichi said that US investment bank Morgan Stanley had approached Nomura for funding. No one was available for comment at Morgan Stanley.

Lehman has hired investment bank Rothschild to advise it on the sale of its Asia operations, sources said on Friday.

Barclays is also seen as a candidate to buy all or part of the Asia business.

John Varley, Barclays chief executive, said after sealing the deal for the US business that he was looking at other Lehman assets.

"We now have the opportunity, and it's an opportunity that we're looking at quickly and seriously, to see what else might fit with the businesses we're developing around the world," Varley said.

The bank said it would typically be in areas where Lehman has strong positions and Barclays is weak, such as in equities and the equity capital markets business.