Barclays has returned to Lehman Brothers to buy its headquarters and North American investment banking unit.

After Barclays walked away from a takeover at the weekend, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, leaving the administrators to sell off the bank’s assets.

Barclays is set to acquire trading assets with a current estimated value of £40 billion and trading liabilities with a current estimated value of £38 billion for £0.14 billion in cash.

Barclays said it will also acquire the New York headquarters of Lehman Brothers as well as its two data centres for £1 billion, “close” to their current market value.

The operations employ a total of 10,000 people, although Barclays did not mention how many jobs would be saved with the deal.

Robert Diamond , Barclays president, said: “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for Barclays. We will now have the best team and most productive culture across the world’s major financial markets, backed by the resources of an integrated universal bank.”

Herbert McDade III, Lehman Brothers chief operating officer, said: “With this transaction, we have the opportunity to continue the growth and development of our US investment banking and capital market franchises with one of the leading financial institutions in the world.”

Barclays also said it expects the deal to lead to a subscription of at least £0.6 billion of additional equity.