Lehman Brothers International Europe, the financial services company which went into administration last week, controls nearly 5% of Anglo Irish Bank on behalf of third-party clients.

The company's asset management arm owns more than 36.5 million Anglo shares, worth over €204m based on Friday's closing price, making its investors the fourth-largest notified shareholder in the bank behind Seán Quinn and family, Janus and Invesco.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), which was last week appointed administrator to Lehman Brothers International Europe (LBIE), said on Friday that the company's asset management division will be sold within days, which will mean alterations to Anglo's share register. Anglo said it never comments on its shareholders.

PWC also said it expects to sell the LBIE corporate finance unit in the immediate future after holding discussions with potential partners. However, PwC told Reuters last week that disposal of the group's European property interests, which were worth about $15bn, will take longer.

LBIE's clients owned nearly 6% of Anglo at one stage but offloaded 5.7 million shares on 24 May 2007, reducing its clients' holding to 4.81%.

On Monday, the London Stock Exchange declared Lehman Brothers International (Europe) a defaulter, meaning the bank will lose its membership and ability to trade on the stock exchange. The move came after Lehman informed the exchange "that it will not be trading until further clarification of its position".