Tokyo/Hong Kong, Sept. 22 (Reuters): Japan’s Nomura Holdings will buy the Asian operations of Lehman Brothers, a source said.

With the acquisition, Nomura will outbid other banks seeking to scoop up the bankrupt US bank’s Asian assets.

The source did not mention the value of the deal or whether certain Lehman units were excluded from the agreement.

Nomura and Britain’s Barclays Plc have also bid for parts of Lehman’s Europe business, as administrators seek to save as many jobs and salvage as much business units as possible from the wreckage of what was Wall Street’s fourth biggest investment bank.

Barclays is interested in Lehman’s European equities, a source said. That could include 1,000-1,500 bankers and support staff, mostly in London, out of Lehman’s European workforce of 6,000. Nomura has also bid for the European operations, two sources said.

Lehman last week filed for bankruptcy protection after collapsing from its exposure to risky sub-prime mortgage securities. Barclays struck a $1.75-billion deal to rescue its core US investment banking business, and signalled it might do the same for other units.

Nomura was the first Japanese securities company to set up an overseas office 81 years ago. It has around 19,000 staff in 30 countries and its Asia deal and interests in Europe will help meet its aim to expand its investment banking business globally.

“Nomura’s global hub for this business is London, rather than New York, so bidding for Lehman’s European operation makes sense,” said Wataru Kasatani, a senior financial analyst at Meiji Dresdner Asset Management. “Lehman’s Asia operation will also add value to what Nomura has been doing in Asia,” Kasatani said.

Nomura is Japan’s top underwriter for stock offerings and also tops the merger and acquisition (M&A) advisory table. But it ranks outside the top 20 in both Asian and European M&A advisory work, while Lehman ranks ninth in Asia and seventh in Europe.

Standard Chartered and Barclays had also been interested in Lehman’s Asian assets, sources said. Samsung Securities officials also looked at the Asian operations, another source said.

Lehman’s net revenue from Asia-Pacific in January-June was $1.4 billion, nearly matching the whole of 2006 and accounting for roughly 20 per cent of the bank’s overall revenues.