By William James
LONDON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - A London headhunter is seeking "a commercially absurd sum" in a legal spat over how Nomura kept star bankers as part of its takeover of Lehman Brothers in Europe, the Japanese bank said.
Documents filed at London's High Court show there is a dispute between Nomura and Hogarth Davies Lloyd (HDL).
"There is a dispute about the extent of HDL's role in the Lehman Brothers acquisition and the fee that is properly due," Nomura said in a statement attributed to Stephen Sidebottom, the bank's head of human resources in Europe.
"The claim is misconceived and HDL is seeking a commercially absurd sum," Sidebottom said.
The Times newspaper estimated the fees Hogarth is seeking could be as high as 90 million pounds ($148.7 million).
Hogarth did not return calls for comment and Nomura declined to comment beyond Sidebottom's statement.
The dispute regards Hogarth's role in recruiting about 600 Lehman Brothers bankers after Nomura bought Lehman's European operations last September, when the U.S. investment bank collapsed.
The Lehman deal at the time prompted concern of a cultural clash between Nomura staff and the new arrivals, especially as many of the Lehman bankers were offered long-term lucrative pay deals to prevent an exodus of top staff.
The headhunting dispute centres on whether Hogarth should be paid a full fee for all the investment bankers and fixed-income traders it helped the bank attract, or if the scale of the hiring should reduce the fee. Nomura said it also used other headhunters during the process.
The case is likely to reach court later this year if the two sides do not reach agreement, the newspaper said. (Reporting by Steve Slater and William James, Editing by Lin Noueihed)