KPMG International, the liquidator of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., disposed of seven out of nine Chinese property-related loans and bonds, generating proceeds of more than US$200 million for creditors of the failed American bank, according to China Business News (CBN).

KMPG said the assets comprise senior and mezzanine loans secured on real estate and convertible bonds. Most of the deals involved the sale of loans to the original borrower or a compromise on repayment.

The transactions achieved an average recovery rate of 80 percent of the dollar and were the first major disposals from the extensive global real-estate portfolio built by Lehman Brothers.

Six of the seven disposals concerned commercial real-estate properties in Shanghai.

Chen Limin, director of the global real estate services firm Jones Lang Lasalle Asia Pacific, told CBN that the Fuhai Commercial Center in Shanghai was closely related to Lehman Brothers, but he wasn't sure if it was on the list of sales.

American Capital Strategies, Inc. (00497.HK) and Lehman Brothers jointly spent 450 million yuan (US$65.79 million) in an auction to gain the property in February 2007. The real estate is now for rent as Shengbang International Building.

Lehman Brothers also has partial investment in the second phase of Shanghai Yongye Apartment under the Yongye Group. On July 4, 2004, Yongye Group announced that Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers each took 25 percent stakes in the property, an investment of about 200 million yuan (US$29.25 million).

(China.org.cn June 19, 2009)