Around the world in a Lehman plane

Michelle Leder points to the latest filing by Alvarez & Marsal, the US bankruptcy and restructuring firm that is sorting out the remains of Lehman Brothers. We knew Wall Street operated like this, but it is interesting to see precise details of Lehman’s stock of private jets and paintings before the fall.

Page 21 of the Powerpoint update lists the 12 corporate jets and one helicopter, with an estimated value of $164m, that are in the process of being sold. That includes one Gulfstream IV jet that was sold last month for $21m. I suppose that owning the jet that used to ferry Dick Fuld around the world has curiosity value.

As well as all those aircraft, Lehman had $15m of rights to fly in Netjets private jets, which Warren Buffett would have been pleased about, since Berkshire Hathaway owns NetJets.

By the way, the Lehman art collection is estimated to be worth $30m, although no word on whether the estimate will hold up in what is now a weak art market.

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John Gapper is an associate editor and the chief business commentator of the FT. He has worked for the FT since 1987, covering labour relations, banking and the media. He is co-author, with Nicholas Denton, of All That Glitters, an account of the collapse of Barings in 1995.

Andrew Hill is an associate editor and the management editor of the FT. He is a former City editor, financial editor, comment and analysis editor, New York bureau chief, foreign news editor and correspondent in Brussels and Milan.

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