Rummage sale at the Lehman Bros logo store

[marmar]

Lehman Stress Balls Coughed Up By Barclays (Update1)
By Christopher Scinta and Linda Sandler


March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. has negotiated the return of thousands of Lehman-logoed knickknacks that were mistakenly transferred to Barclays Plc through the sale of the bankrupt securities firm’s brokerage unit.

Tote bags, umbrellas, stress balls, Tiffany paperweights and other items now stored in closets and warehouses from New York to Chicago will be returned to Lehman and sold to pay creditors, according to a court filing yesterday. Lehman filed the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history in September and has about $200 billion in unsecured liabilities left to pay, Chief Executive Officer Bryan Marsal said Jan. 28.

As part of the arrangement, Lehman is barred from trying to sell the objects to Barclays’ employees, according to court papers. The investment bank may need a liquidator to move the logoed goods, which would fetch “a discount to their intrinsic value,” said Richard Kaye, chief marketing officer at Hilco Trading, which values and sells assets for companies, in a phone interview.

“A golf ball plays the same way no matter what it says on it,” said Kaye, who might offer Hilco’s services to Lehman, he said. “But does someone want to walk around with a logoed Lehman umbrella?”

Barclays, the third-biggest U.K. bank by assets, paid $1.75 billion for Lehman’s North American brokerage and real estate in September after Lehman went bankrupt with assets of $639 billion. Lehman said on March 10 its cash rose to $6.8 billion by Jan. 31. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aCmcR97uSysg&refer=home