A pitch by Lehman Brothers to Telenor secured the bank the disposal of the Norwegian telecom company's €362m ($450m) stake in Cosmote Mobile Telecommunications, a Greek rival. Telenor had previously used Citigroup to sell down part of its stake.

Lehman was sole bookrunner of the sale of Telenor's remaining 9% stake on Thursday after approaching the company with the proposition for the deal. Last April Citigroup sold €275m Cosmote shares for Telenor.