Lehman Brothers, the global investment bank, today announced an agreement to acquire certain assets related to Van der Moolen Specialists, including its New York Stock Exchange portfolio of listed company specialist's assignments and certain technology. The transaction is expected to be finalized on December 10, 2007. Upon closing, a Lehman Brothers affiliate will act as specialist for approximately 400 NYSE-listed issues. The completion of the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals, which will occur prior to closing. Terms of the proposed transaction and the purchase price were not disclosed.
Gerald Donini, head of Americas Equities at Lehman Brothers, said, "This transaction underscores our continued commitment to providing a competitive, transparent, public market that allows clients to choose how to best suit their sophisticated needs. Under current NYSE leadership, floor-based market making has and will continue to evolve. We look forward to partnering with the Exchange and our clients to continue to improve market quality. We also greatly look forward to working with the floor-based market makers who will soon join our team."
Lehman Brothers' market making business will be the fourth-largest specialist firm on the NYSE. With a market share of approximately 12% of the NYSE issuers, Lehman Brothers' book will include three components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index, seven components of the Standard & Poor's 100 Index and 44 components of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.
Lehman Brothers' Equities Capital Markets is consistently recognized across product lines and continues to demonstrate top-tier market positions, as evidenced by a series of #1 rankings. In 2007, the Firm ranked #1 for the fifth year in a row in Institutional Investor's All-America Research Team survey, and #1 in Institutional Investor's U.S. Equity Trading poll. Lehman Brothers was the first broker to execute four million electronic order book trades in one month on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and ranked as the #1 dealer by trading volume on LSE, Euronext and Xetra. The Firm also ranks #1 by program trading volumes on the NYSE. In addition, Alpha magazine ranked Lehman Brothers #1 in Algorithmic Trading. Investors ranked the Firm #2 for Overall Equity Derivatives Quality for Europe in 2007, up from #10 in 2005. The Firm was also named the #1 Prime Broker in Europe and Japan, and was awarded 42 "Best in Class" awards for excellence in the 2007 Global Custodian Prime Brokerage survey.
