LBIE Statement of Affairs

In accordance with Paragraph 47(1) Schedule B1 of the Insolvency Act 1986, the directors of an insolvent company are bound to submit a Statement of Affairs to the insolvency office holders. The Statement of Affairs is a statutory document setting out the financial position of the company at the date of insolvency.

On 8 July 2009, the Statement of Affairs of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) (in administration) ("LBIE") was submitted to the Joint Administrators. The Statement of Affairs was produced by Mr Dominic Gibb, former financial controller and director of LBIE.

In advance of the finalisation of the Statement of Affairs, the Joint Administrators obtained from the Court an order for limited disclosure in respect of certain parts of the statement. The Joint Administrators were concerned that it would be prejudicial to the conduct of the administration for the names of individual creditors and details of LBIE's estimated liabilities to individual creditors to be disclosed.

In particular, the Joint Administrators were concerned that (i) disclosure of this information could result in LBIE breaching duties of confidentiality owed to certain of its creditors; (ii) valuing the claims with any degree of certainty was extremely problematical and thus disclosing names of creditors and valuations of claims could be materially misleading and could result in claims submitted against the estate increasing, referencing values in the statement of affairs; and (iii) the level of sensitivity around this information would mean that its disclosure could have a detrimental impact on what was and is currently a cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship with LBIE's counterparties. A copy of the court order obtained by the Joint Administrators can be accessed by clicking here.

Further details of the basis for the Joint Administrators' decision to obtain this order can be found in the witness statement of Steven Pearson filed in support of the application for limited disclosure, which can be accessed by clicking here.

As a result of this Court Order, the Statement of Affairs is publically available only in its limited form. The redacted Statement of Affairs for LBIE can be accessed by clicking here.