UK-listed Man Group said today it has moved to acquire residual exposure to the estates of the now-bankrupt Lehman Brothers business from funds managed by its subsidiary, GLG Partners. The acquisitions cost $355 million in cash.

The acquisitions, which have been made at current net asset value, mainly involved GLG’s European Long Short and North American Opportunity hedge fund strategies, Man Group said in a statement today.

"These transactions will remove the remaining uncertainty from funds with residual claims against the Lehman estates, to the benefit of both existing and new investors. In this way, Man can use its resources productively to provide clarity for fund investors and the opportunity to grow assets in the affected funds more quickly,” said Peter Clarke, Man chief executive.

Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in the autumn of 2008, an event that is now widely regarded as having heralded the worst financial crisis since the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Disentangling investor exposure to Lehman Brothers and some of its associated business concerns has been a tricky issue in subsequent years.

As a result of the acquisitions, Man will be able to benefit or take the risk of any change to the net asset value of the claims, with the funds sharing upside in limited circumstances.

“Man will be entitled to the proceeds of each claim as and when it is distributed by the relevant Lehman estate, although the precise timing of receipts is difficult to determine given the complexity of the Lehman insolvencies,” the statement said.

In its 7 July interim management statement, Man said it had a regulatory capital surplus of around $900 million, net cash of around $900 million and total available liquidity resources of around $4.8 billion. The regulatory capital impact of the transactions is expected to be around $50 million and they are expected to have a small impact on Man's net interest expense.