The administrators of Lehman Brothers in the UK and continental Europe moved to reassure the bank's 4,500 staff yesterday by promising that they would be paid for September, as long as they turned up to work.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), in charge of selling off Lehman's potentially valuable asset management and mergers advisory unit, said that staff should receive their pay as usual by the end of the month after the administrators arranged a loan from CarVal, the global financial institution.

During an update on the sales process yesterday, Tony Lomas, one of four partners at PwC, said: “Before the end of the month, we will be paying all staff here . . . so long as, of course, they are turning up to work.”

The promise will come as a relief for thousands of Lehman banking staff, who presumed themselves to be without a job on Monday when the former Wall Street titan filed for creditor protection after failing to negotiate a bailout. London-based staff were photographed leaving the bank's Canary Wharf offices with their work belongings in boxes.

PwC executives emphasised that staff knowledge and contacts were central to the group's value and the plan was to transfer employees as part of any sale. Contracts for mergers and acquisitions advice and asset management mandates carried an economic value that would be assessed as part of a sale, they said.

There has been a flurry of approaches for Lehman's European asset management business and its advisory business, which employs 600 staff, since the administrators were brought in.

Dan Schwarzmann, another PwC partner, told The Times that he was hopeful of agreeing a deal with buyers of both businesses within days. The asset management resources could be sold off as one or a number of units, he said. The entire asset management business has been valued at between $5 billion (£2.79 billion) and $6 billion.

“These are solvent businesses. One set of assets are their contracts with clients; the other assets are the staff themselves. I am looking to sell staff and contracts,” Mr Schwarzmann said. “We have had approaches from financial, trade and private equity buyers. I would like to do something in days rather than longer.”

Mr Schwarzmann said that the advisory businesses and the asset manager needed to be dealt with quickly because of the risk that clients and managers would quit. He said that other Lehman assets, such as commercial property, were not under the same pressures of time.

The approaches boost the chances that healthy business assets can be salvaged from the ashes of the former Wall Street giant. Lehman's asset management divisions, which include Neuberger Berman in the United States, are not part of the administration, but PwC needs to clear a sale.

The bank previously was trying to offload a 51 per cent stake to private investors before it hit the rocks. Executives decided after the collapse to put the whole division on the block.

The approaches to buy the asset management business in Europe represent competition for Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman, the two American buyout groups that are in negotiations to buy the business worldwide.

It is not clear how the proceeds of any sale would be distributed between the European and American businesses.

It is understood that Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, which previously had expressed bid interest in the assets, has dropped out.

What they say...

'These are solvent businesses. One set of assets are their contracts with clients; the other assets are the staff themselves'
Dan Schwarzmann, of PwC

'In the US business cash equities is an absolute machine, very profitable. We wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to add talent from the UK and Europe to that team'
Bob Diamond, Barclays president

'We have had approaches from financial, trade and private equity buyers. I would like to do something in days rather than longer'
Mr Schwarzmann

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