$75 billion lost under Lehman bankruptcy filing

This week the Wall Street Journal reported the figures cited by the restructuring advisers of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. According to their estimates the bank's emergency bankruptcy filing wiped out as much as $75 billion of potential value for creditors. Lehman filed for bankruptcy protection in September this year.

Earlier the government rejected the appeal of the bank to bail it out with the negotiations aimed at saving the investment bank proved unsuccessful. Analysis conducted by Alvarez & Marsal prompts that in case of more planned and orderly filing Lehman could sell assets outside of bankruptcy court protection which would have given it time to unwind derivatives positions. Though in view of the Wall Street Journal it is too early to speculate on how much money Lehman creditors would recover, yet it said that unsecured creditors have asserted they are owed $200 billion.

As we know the recession of the Lehman Brothers resulted in chain reaction of a stock market panic and credit crisis. In turn the government rescued the world's largest insurer American International Group Inc. In the course of the further developments the holding company was forced to undertake largest sales of its financial groups such as Wachovia Corp and Merrill Lynch & Co Inc.