Lehman Brothers has won a role as joint bookrunner with Merrill Lynch on a €341m ($415m) placement of shares in STMicroelectronics, the Franco-Italian semiconductor company, as part of a derivatives transaction with Finmeccanica, the Italian defence company.

The two banks sold 26.6 million STMicroelectronics shares on Tuesday morning at €15.10 each - a 3.5% discount to Monday's closing price. STMicroelectronics shares closed at the offer price on Tuesday. At 09:23 GMT on Wednesday they were trading at €15.34.