The consortium has made an approach to Le Meridien's 14-strong senior bank syndicate, which is owed about Pounds 740m. Lehman is one of the biggest holders of Le Meridien's mezzanine debt and faces a substantial write-off on the value of its interest.
The offer from Blackstone and Lehman is one of three solutions that have been proposed to solve Le Meridien's debt crisis. The hotel group has to meet a quarterly rent bill from its biggest landlord, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), by the end of this month and the company is keen to draw a line under its recent troubles.
RBS, which owns Le Meridien's top London hotels, including Grosvenor House and the Waldorf, is thought to be against a break-up of the group.
It wants the banks to write off some of their loans, and has also been talking to other hotel groups, including Hilton, Marriott and Accor, with a view to letting them take over management contracts.
The third proposal, which is favoured by some of the banks, is to break up the company, sell off the assets in individual lots and use the proceeds to reduce the debt.
Le Meridien owns almost 140 hotels, with the biggest concentration on the Continent, where it runs a 40-strong portfolio. This compares with 20 in Britain and Ireland, about 30 in east Africa and the Indian Ocean, 20 in the Middle East and west Africa and 13 in the Americas.
Le Meridien admitted in April that it had breached bank covenants and that equity holders, including Nomura, had written off the value of their investments.
It is not the only hotelier to feel the economic impact of the Iraq war and to have come unstuck in the downturn. Its rivals, such as Hilton and Millennium & Copthorne, have also suffered but analysts are hoping that the worst could now be over.
Persistent rumours have circulated that Blackstone wants to sell the Savoy hotel and its other trophy assets, including Claridge's. However, it is thought that its American owners will wait until there is a strong recovery in the market.
Lehman has become an aggressive player in the debt market and has been involved in some of the larger asset-backed leveraged buyouts.