Does this imply the obliteration of BarCap's bonus pool?

18 November 2009

1 minute read

Does this imply the obliteration of BarCap's bonus pool?

It's just a coincidence, but it's an unfortunate one. The amount that Lehman Brother's estate is attempting to extract from Barclays for allegedly under-pricing Lehman's assets, almost exactly matches the purported size of BarCap's bonus pool.

BarCap hasn't divulged the size of its bonus pool this year, but speculation suggests it's in the region of 5bn.

Coincidentally, lawyers for Lehman are seeking to recover $10bn (6bn) from BarCap's estate, including about $500m in unpaid bonuses.

BarCap isn't commenting on the case. Fortunately, a trial seems unlikely this year. And even if BarCap is found to have undervalued the assets, the bonus pool should be safe - one BarCap trader wasn't even aware of the issue and John Holmes, an analyst at Keefe Bruyette and Woods says it's not seen as a concern.

Nomura analysts raised BarCap to Buy yesterday, citing BarCap's expectation of stronger revenues in Q4 than Q3.

AUTHORSarah Butcher

Global Editor

mo
morgan stanley banker
19 November 2009
what nonsense
Reply
2n
2nd Lt Simmons
18 November 2009
You can't raise Barcap to a buy, although you could raise Barclays to a buy..
Reply
ab
abc
18 November 2009
what a senseless comparison.
Reply
ex
exLeh
18 November 2009
Even if Barcap have to pay 5bil it's still a steal and it's already paid itself in extra revenues this year... after all didn't JP Morgan buy Bears for 10 bil ? think about how much it would have cost to buy Lehman in a normal market.
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