Former Neuberger Berman CEO Jeffrey Lane plans to challenge Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman's joint bid for Lehman Brother's investment management unit, which includes Neuberger Berman. The WSJ reports that Lane has joined forces another private equity firm, Carlyle Group, to make a rival bid.

Carlyle was reportedly one of the finalists for the unit, whose sale to Bain and Hellman & Friedman was announced by Lehman on September 29.

Lane and Carlyle filed a motion Tuesday in bankruptcy court claiming that the $2.15 billion price that Bain and Hellman paid for the unit that included Neuberger, was too low and therefore violated Lehman's obligation to maximize the value of its asset sales to pay off creditors.

Carlyle and Lane are pushing for a real auction of the unit. A hearing on the matter is set for Thursday. The court has not yet given final approval to the Bain/Hellman purchase.

Lane is currently the CEO of Modern Bank, a private bank serving high-net worth clients. He has been in that position since July of 2008. Lane also briefly served as chairman and CEO of Bear Stearns Asset Management.  

Edited by: Erin Kello


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