Banks: Nomura Poised to Save 6,000 Lehman Jobs

The Japanese finance house Nomura was last night on the brink of buying the European arm of the collapsed US investment bank Lehman Brothers, having snapped up its Asian operations, potentially saving up to 3,000 City jobs and 3,000 in the far east.

The deals would propel the biggest broker in Japan on to the world stage. Nomura is believed to have entered exclusive talks yesterday over the investment banking and equities arm of Lehman in Europe with the administrators, PricewaterhouseCoopers. Barclays, which has bought the Wall Street businesses of Lehman, had been interested in the equities part of the London operation but was not prepared to bid for other parts of the troubled business which collapsed last week.

Dan Schwarzmann, joint administrator at PWC, said: "We have now focused on one party as they are interested in acquiring a wider team, which should result in a better deal for staff and creditors of these businesses. Given the complexity of Lehman, these negotiations are difficult but I'm hoping to give certainty to all involved as soon as possible."

Schwarzmann declined to name the last remaining bidder but it was widely believed to be Nomura, which yesterday said it was paying $225m (£123m) for the Asia-Pacific businesses of Lehman, adding 3,000 to its workforce in the region. It is believed to have outbid Barclays and Standard Chartered for the Asian businesses following weekend talks.

The deal does not involve any trading assets or trading liabilities. Kenichi Watanabe, president and chief executive of Nomura, said of the Asian move: "This is a transformational deal that ... will significantly extend our reach in Asia."

Lehman Brothers Japan applied for court protection with debts of ¥3.4tn (£17.4bn) - the second-biggest bankruptcy in Japan since the second world war.

Last week, Barclays agreed to pay almost £1bn for Lehman's North American investment banking and capital markets businesses after failing to secure a deal to take over all of Lehman Brothers before it collapsed. Yesterday, Barclays reopened the operations it had bought, and branded it Barclays Capital even though it has bought the rights to the Lehman Brothers name.

Barclays inherited a $2.5bn bonus pool with the business, which is causing controversy as former Lehman colleagues in Europe and Asia may be less likely to receive payouts. Barclays has offered jobs to more than 10,000 ex-Lehman staff.