PwC push for Lehman's Scheme of Arrangement

Administrators from PwC have made an appeal to the High Court in a bid to try and accelerate efforts to return cash to creditors of Lehman Brothers' European operations.

If approved, the Scheme of Arrangement will see creditors with similar claims grouped together into classes. PwC believes this will make it easier to achieve the tough job of clawing back the assets before they eventually redistribute them.

The firm has taken the move to speed up the process of returning client assets, known as Trust Property. These assets take precedence over those of unsecured creditors.

Every Trust Property creditor has a vote and agreement needs 75% of each class by value and 50% by number, the FT reported.

PwC has also taken steps to guard against the possibility of the cash recovered from the Trust Property being too low to cover its own fees.

The firm said in a statement on its website: 'To the extent that the Administrators are ultimately unable to recover out of the Trust Property their reasonable remuneration, costs and expenses incurred in dealing with Trust Property, whether pursuant to the proposed scheme of arrangement or otherwise, they shall be so paid and indemnified out of the assets of LBIE.'