Stock Markets Crash On U.S. Financial Turmoil

Beleaguered US banking giant Lehman Brothers has been forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

In another major development in the US financial market, Bank of America has agreed to acquire brokerage giant Merrill Lynch.

Lehman-invested Indian firms lose over Rs 2,000 crore

Lehman Brothers' move to file for bankruptcy on Monday wiped off more than Rs 2,000 crore from the market valuation of those Indian companies in which the US financial major has made equity investments.

Lehman itself recorded a loss of more than Rs 50 crore today on its investments in India, which is nearly 10 per cent of its current holding worth an estimated over Rs 500 crore.

The loss would have been much higher if Lehman had not started offloading its equity holding in Indian companies late last month.

In a major selling spree that started on 21st August, Lehman has sold shares worth close to Rs 400 crore in nearly 10 companies, including NIIT Ltd, Cranes Software, Amtek Auto, Amtek India, Fedders Llyod, Northgate, Mastek, Triveni Engg and Prajay Engg.

Prior to this sell-off, Lehman's Indian equity portfolio is estimated to have been worth more than Rs 1,000 crore, which has now nearly halved to about Rs 500 crore.

Most of the shares offloaded by Lehman in India, including those in NIIT, Cranes, Amtek Auto, Amtek India and Northgate, has been purchased by Deutsche Bank, according to the bulk and block deal data available with the bourses.

Besides the 10 companies where Lehman has offloaded its shares, Lehman had equity holding in about two dozen firms at the end of June quarter.

These firms include Spice Communications, Spice Mobile, Anant Raj Industries, Edelweiss Cap, IVRCL Infra, Tulip Telecom, Consolidated Construction, PSL, Orbit Corp, Development Credit Bank, Champagne Indage, Godawari Power, KPIT Cummins, West Coast Paper, IOL Netcom, Dhampur Sugar, Prithvi Info, Golden Tobacco, Emkay Global, Vijay Shanti Builders and Pioneer Embroidery.

By DDNEWS