Here's a selection of comments from financial markets professionals and their like in the wake of Monday's announcement by Lehman Brothers of a likely $2.8bn second-quarter loss, and the capital injection of $6bn it now seeks.

'Lehman is raising $6bn that they said they didn't need to replace losses that they said they didn't have.......Since the credit markets actually improved this quarter, such losses primarily reflect losses that might have been taken in prior quarters. A preliminary analysis of the pre-release and conference call suggests that there are still unrecognised losses on the balance sheet'.

David Einhorn, Greenlight Capital (The New York Post)

'I don't know who would buy them. No bank would buy them. Any bank that took them would have immediate problems....The Fed is not going to allow a takeover of Lehman....They're going to survive.....(but) there isn't a business there at the moment......(They) will be scraping around at very low earnings levels for the next several years'.

Richard Bove, Ladenburg Thalmann & Co (Reuters)

'It's kind of sobering for people who have been listening to the company these last 6 - 9 months that they had everything under control. They've got to start thinking about selling a strategic stake, or selling the firm, because there's just not enough business to go around'.

David Hendler, CreditSights Inc. (Bloomberg)

'Lehman will continue to sell riskier assets and reduce its overall risk in specific asset classes, particularly residential and commercial mortgages. However, Fitch is concerned that such sales may remove the most attractive assets, leaving a concentrated level of least desirable or more problematic assets on the balance sheet'.

Fitch Ratings, which cut Lehman's long-term issuer default rating to 'A-plus', the fifth-highest investment grade rating Monday.

'(Monday's) results were far worse than anyone had anticipated'.

William Tanona, Goldman Sachs (The Wall Street Journal)

'I think that Dick Fuld (Lehman's CEO) is a very, very good and honourable manager, and I think what he reported (Monday) took care of all the issues that he's aware of, or the company is aware of'.

Hank Greenberg, former CEO AIG Group ( The New York Post)

'Our relationships with clients and counterparties remains strong, with no material loss of lenders, clients nor counterparties during the quarter'.

Erin Callen, CFO, Lehman Brotehrs (The Wall Street Journal)

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