Report: Lehman shops real estate assets

NEW YORK, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- New York investment banker Lehman Brothers is shopping its massive commercial real estate portfolio in an effort to raise capital, sources say.

The financially troubled firm hopes to raise $40 billion from the real estate sale to replenish its balance sheet in the wake of credit-related writedowns that have seen its share price plummet 63 percent since May, the Financial Times reported Saturday.

Lehman's commercial real estate portfolio late last year was valued at almost $52 billion, but that figure had fallen to $40 billion by the end of May. The Financial Times says Lehman is looking to shop the assets in whole or in pieces and is still facing a gap between what it believes the assets are worth and what potential buyers are offering.

Possible buyers for the real estate include BlackRock, Blackstone, Colony Capital and J.E. Robert Cos., the newspaper reported.