The Ritz-Carlton Kapalua hotel in Hawaii, a luxury ski resort in the Rockies and a Manhattan boutique hotel are among the last holdings of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, the investment house whose spectacular bust triggered the worst of the 2008 financial crisis.
The bank said on Tuesday that it would begin unloading its stakes in those properties next month as it prepares to exit bankruptcy protection and finally meet its end.
Lehman’s US$639 billion bankruptcy remains the largest in US history. It went under on Sept. 15, 2008, the same week that the government rescued American International Group Inc and the US$700 billion bailout for major banks was conceived.
The bankruptcy marked the demise of a company that had survived the US civil war and the Great Depression.
Lehman has spent three-and-a-half years in bankruptcy court, negotiating with the creditors who loaned it billions of US dollars to make large bets on investments from apartment buildings, hotels and luxury resorts to complex financial instruments.
Lehman said it has already raised US$30 billion since its bankruptcy by selling its stake in a tony Manhattan property known as the Toy Building because it housed toy manufacturers from around the globe.
It also sold Whistler Blackcomb, a ski resort in Canada that was one of the venues for the Vancouver Olympics in 2010.
Now the company says it stands to raise US$35 billion more by selling the rest of its assets. Among them are the 404 room Ritz Carlton in Hawaii and the Moonlight Basin resort in Montana, a luxurious ski, golf and spa resort.
The money from the sales beginning next month will go to Lehman’s creditors. Among them are people with retirement money managed by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, large banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley and hedge funds.
The creditors are still expected to end up with no more than pennies on the dollar. However, others might make off with some lesser-valued, but potent emblems of the heyday.
In 2010, some items that were found at Lehman’s old headquarters and at its other offices in Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles included Tiffany paperweights, tote bags for ski boots and a Montblanc paperclip bowl.
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