Creditors of Lehman Brothers would receive stock rather than cash under a plan that could separate its illiquid assets into two companies, which would force them to wait for repayment but potentially boost their returns.

The plan would allow Lehman to cordon off difficult-to-sell assets and wait for the markets to improve, preventing a fire sale of its holdings, said Bryan Marsal, co-head of Alvarez and Marsal, which is managing Lehman’s liquidation. It is now in its preliminary stages but, if it is adopted, the two standalone companies could be publicly listed within two years.

One of the companies would include Lehman’s real estate holdings, now valued at $43bn, which could prove difficult to sell at a time when the commercial real estate market is only just starting to suffer from corporate lay-offs and liquidations.