HONG KONG, Sept 18: Lehman Brothers staff in Asia remains in the dark about the fate of their business, with the clock ticking on any deal with a potential buyer.

Rival investment bankers in Hong Kong said on Thursday they expected British bank Barclays to buy all or part of Lehman’s Asia business, after it agreed on Wednesday to pay $1.75 billion to rescue Lehman’s core US business.

As no word has come yet on any such deal, Lehman bankers are getting frustrated and nervous that the Asia group will be left to liquidate, said sources close to the bank.

A Barclays spokeswoman in Hong Kong, Clare Williams, declined to comment. Lehman also declined to comment.

Lehman has 3,000 employees in Asia in 10 offices – roughly 1,300 in Tokyo and 800 in Hong Kong. The Tokyo office has a large fixed income group, while Hong Kong mainly houses M&A, equity capital and debt capital bankers. In Singapore, Lehman employs 250 staffers, mostly focused on commodities and trading.

Lehman’s net revenue from Asia-Pacific in the first half of the year totalled $1.41 billion, nearly matching its haul for all of 2006 and accounting for roughly 20 per cent of the bank’s overall revenues.

Barclays Group Chief Executive John Varley told analysts on Wednesday the bank had the opportunity, but no obligation, to acquire additional bits of Lehman. The bank said it would focus on areas where Lehman is strong and Barclays Capital is not.

“So it would be mostly around the equity and equity capital markets business,” Barclays President Bob Diamond told analysts on a conference call on Wednesday.

“You shouldn’t assume we aren’t already acting on the opportunities that we think are beneficial to us.” Barclays has 5,000 employees in investment banking and investment management in 11 countries in Asia. It also has retail banking networks in India and Pakistan.

As an investment bank, Barclays’ Asia strength is mainly debt and derivatives. Lehman would add capability in M&A and equities.—Reuters