Nomura agrees to acquire Lehman’s India IT operations

Japan’s top broker Nomura Holdings Inc. said that it had agreed to acquire Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. IT support operations in India, giving jobs to 3,000 more workers from the bankrupt Wall Street giant.Nomura, which is already buying Lehman’s operations in the Asia-Pacific region, West Asia and Europe, will take on the failed US bank’s India-based back office and IT support businesses for an undisclosed sum.The Japanese broker moved swiftly to buy up Lehman’s operations in Europe and Asia after the once mighty Wall Street titan was brought down by the financial crisis that has rocked world markets.But the Indian subsidiaries, based in the financial hub of Mumbai, were not included in the earlier deal because they were under the wing of Lehman’s North American business, which is being bought by British bank Barclays Plc.
Nomura chief executive Kenichi Watanabe described the latest acquisition as “an important component of our global expansion strategy”.“It will allow us to significantly enhance our global service platform to support the business expansion that the combined talents of Nomura and Lehman will drive going forward,” he said in a statement.Japanese financial institutions, which have been relatively immune to the global credit crisis, have seized the opportunity to expand overseas, buying stakes or assets from troubled Western banks.Nomura will buy all the assets, as well as the issued and outstanding shares, of the three Mumbai-based companies—Lehman Brothers Services India Pvt. Ltd, Lehman Brothers Financial Services (India) Pvt. Ltd, and Lehman Brothers Structured Finance Services Pvt. Ltd.