Uncertain times for 2,500 Lehman India staff

MUMBAI: The fate of 2,500 odd employees working for investment banking giant Lehman Brothers in India remains uncertain following its parent company's decision to file for bankruptcy protection in the US.

Lehman said in a statement that its New York office intends to file for bankruptcy protection as it owes over 600 billion dollars to lenders.

However, it highlighted that no other Lehman brothers US subsidiaries or affiliates, including its broker-dealer and investment management subsidiaries, are included in the filing.

The filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which allows a company to restructure while creditor claims are held at bay, was made in the US Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York by the investment bank's holding company, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

The firm's public relations agency said that no official from Lehman would like to talk to the media. An employee said there was no work and a series of meetings were held today.

Lehman set up BPO operations in India in 2005 and according to the fact sheet on the firm, the centre saw the number of employees going up by eight times by the middle of this year and had declared its plans to grow the operations. In fact, it was recruiting till as recently as couple of months earlier.

The company has in all about 2,500 people working for it in India, including those in the BPO unit. Recent news reports said the company had asked a section of its BPO staff to quit.

Over 5,000 workers in the UK had lost their jobs after the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers.

Source: TOI