Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Reinet Investments SCA, an investment company controlled by billionaire Johann Rupert, said it’s in talks to take part in a buyout of Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking, a private equity business of bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

A formal agreement has not been reached and a further announcement “will be made in due course,” Luxembourg-based Reinet said in an e-mailed statement today.

Lehman is in advanced talks to sell the $3.3 billion fund to its managers and Reinet, two people with knowledge of the talks said last week. Reinet, spun off from jewelry maker Cie. Financiere Richemont SA, would commit $250 million to the Lehman fund for future investments, said the people, who declined to give a sale price and asked not to be named because the talks are confidential.

The merchant-banking business was housed in Lehman’s private-equity division, along with venture capital and real estate funds that are being sold in separate auctions. Led by Charles Ayres in New York, the merchant-banking group invested in funds that bought stakes in Angelica Corp., the Chesterfield, Missouri-based hospital linens provider, and SRAM Corp., the Chicago-based maker of bicycle components.

Lehman filed for the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history on Sept. 15, when the New York-based firm listed assets of $639 billion and liabilities of $613 billion. Sales of assets, including Lehman’s brokerage operations, have so far brought in about $3.5 billion in cash, Lehman’s lead bankruptcy attorney, Harvey Miller of law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges, said Nov. 20.

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Mulier in Geneva at tmulier@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 12, 2009 02:15 EST