Barclays pulls out of Lehman Brothers rescue
In a move which seems to have been building in the background it has today been announced that Barclays Bank had been in talks with the company's larger investors about putting together a package to takeover troubled US banking giant Lehman Brothers. However, it now seems that talks have been called off with the US government unwilling to step in with an assurance should there be more black holes in the Lehman Brothers balance sheet.
Fresh from the £100 billion bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac it seems as though the US authorities were unwilling to step into the breach once again. The move has therefore scuppered what would have been a very brave bid by Barclays, especially when you consider how shareholders reacted to the recent rights issue. While there must have been some encouragement from leading shareholders it would have been a tight one to call had the takeover come down to a vote amongst shareholders.
Even though Barclays was not successful in this instance the company has laid down a marker which would suggest that they are on the look out for distressed assets and could be able to find the backing for sizeable deals.
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