LONDON (Bloomberg) — Barclays Plc, the UK's third- biggest bank, may buy parts of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s European investment bank after agreeing to acquire the bankrupt securities firm's North American business for $1.75 billion.

Barclays plans to purchase Lehman's investment banking, fixed-income and equities sales, trading and research divisions in North America, which employ about 10,000 people, plus the company's headquarters in New York and two data centres. The London-based bank also is in talks to take over parts of Lehman's equities business in Europe and may hire some of its employees in Asia, Barclays president Robert Diamond said today.

Lehman, which survived railroad bankruptcies of the 1800s, the Great Depression in the 1930s and the collapse of hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management a decade ago, filed for bankruptcy protection on September 15 after record losses in the mortgage market. Diamond, who abandoned talks to buy all of Lehman less than 24 hours before it collapsed, said less than five percent of the assets Barclays is buying are mortgage-related.

"Diamond has struck an interesting deal, but to make this work he will have to be flexible with Barclays's balance sheet," said Julian Chillingworth, chief investment officer at Rathbone Brothers Plc, which owns Barclays shares.

Barclays rose 3.2 percent to 317.75 pence in London trading, valuing the company at 25.9 billion pounds ($47 billion). The shares outperformed the 69-member Bloomberg Banks and Financial Services Index, which fell 6.9 percent.

Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan's biggest securities firm, is also interested in parts of the European unit, a person familiar with the situation said. Officials at Nomura declined to comment.

Lehman is selling off pieces that weren't included in the holding company's bankruptcy filing.

The company also is in discussions to sell its investment-management unit to private- equity bidders Bain Capital LLC and Hellman & Friedman LLC, people familiar with the negotiations said earlier this week.

Barclays will pay $250 million in cash for Lehman's North American operations and $1.5 billion for the real estate, the company said in yesterday's statement. The bank plans to raise at least £600 million in a stock sale to help fund the deal and has "opportunities" to buy other Lehman pieces, Varley said.

Diamond is more interested in boosting the bank's equity and advisory units in Europe, where Barclays Capital has the "weakest position," than expanding in Asia, Diamond said.