First payment Lehman Brothers to creditors

April 17, 2012 1:08 PM

ROTTERDAM – Three years and seven months after the downfall of Lehman Brothers, the trustees of the bankrupt American merchant bank make their first payment to the creditors today.

This is confirmed by two Dutch lawyers who are involved in the largest bankruptcy in history as trustees of former subsidiaries of Lehman Brothers. The downfall of the bank was the prelude to the worldwide financial crisis in 2008.

“As of today, we can expect over 1.5 billion dollars”, Frédéric Verhoeven of law firm Houthoff says. He and Rutger Schimmelpenninck are trustees of Lehman Brothers Treasury Co BV (LBT), domiciled in the Netherlands. This is the largest creditor of the former holding company in the United States with a claim of 34.5 billion dollars (26.2 billion euros). The total estate debts of the holding amount to 639 billion dollars.

The trustees in the United States recently reached an agreement with all creditors worldwide – including over one hundred former subsidiaries – on how much will be paid at first. In the case of the Amsterdam-based LBT, the 1.5 billion dollars comes down to a payment percentage of 4.6.

Verhoeven has no idea how much he can still expect from the US in the future. “The assets are still being wound up, one is busy selling all kinds of interests and investments. The amount of money is still growing.” The percentages he hears being mentioned in this respect are between 16 and 26 percent.

In turn, Verhoeven has to pay the amounts paid to LBT’s own creditors. “We are still busy valuing the many claims. Once they have all been mapped out, we will proceed to payment as quickly as possible.”

The Antilles subsidiary Lehman Brothers Securities NV will receive 240 million dollars one of these days, according to its trustee Robert van Beemen of law firm VanEps Kunneman VanDoorne. “Two weeks ago, a test amount of 1 dollar was transferred. That went well.”

(Source: NRC)