SunCal Company has issued a statement saying that its New Mexico project just west of Albuquerque isn’t connected to the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy.

According to the New Mexico Business Weekly, a SunCal spokeswoman said the property being developed by the company just west of Albuquerque isn’t one of the SunCal projects invested in by Lehman Brothers.

 

Instead, the company partnered with D.E. Shaw, a global investment company, to purchase the 57,000-acre former Atrisco land grant known as Westland. The project has $100 million in equity, she said, and both SunCal and Shaw remain fully committed to the project.

What was not addressed in the Biz Weekly article, though, is Lehman’s investment in D.E. Shaw. 

While Lehman Brothers may not be directly invested in SunCal’s New Mexico property, it has an indirect investment in so far as it’s a 20 percent minority owner of D.E. Shaw. It’s agreement in March 2007 called for an upfront payment and future contingency payments.

From an article dated March 13, 2007 posted on D.E. Shaw’s website:

Lehman Brothers, the global investment bank, and the D. E. Shaw group, a global investment and technology development firm, announced today that Lehman Brothers has purchased a 20 percent interest in the top-level investment management entities of the D. E. Shaw group.

…

The purchase occurred on March 12, 2007, and involved an up-front payment and future contingent payments. Specific terms of the transaction were not disclosed.