Lehman Brothers' Hong Kong operations will soon come to an end and the regulator has appointed provisional liquidators for its Hong Kong units.

As instructed by the High Court, KPMG's Paul Brough, Edward Middleton and Patrick Cowley have been appointed provisional liquidators of two Hong Kong-based Lehman Brothers companies - Lehman Brothers Securities Asia Ltd and Lehman Brothers Futures Asia Ltd.

KPMG said in a statement that the immediate focus will be to work with the local management of the two Lehman entities to understand their current situation, so that the value of the firm's Hong Kong business units can be well preserved.

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said that the appointment of provisional liquidators was the result of continuous dialogue between the SFC and Lehman.

The SFC has also been in close contact with the managements of Lehman Brothers after issuing Restriction Notices on its four entities in Hong Kong on Tuesday and has been working with the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx) to ensure an orderly winding down of Lehman's various positions.

The Hong Kong Futures Exchange (HKFE), a wholly-owned subsidiary of HKEx, has suspended the trading of Lehman Brothers Futures Asia Ltd in local markets after yesterday's afternoon session.

KC Chan, secretary for the Financial Services and the Treasury, said the HKEx and SFC will keep in touch with Lehman to closely watch the development.

(HK Edition 09/18/2008 page2)