Northern Rock Sells $922 Million of Loans to Lehman (Update1) By Jon Menon Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Northern Rock Plc, Britain's worst- performing bank stock this year, sold 465 million pounds ($922 million) of commercial property loans to reduce riskier assets. A subsidiary of New York-based Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. bought the loans, Northern Rock said in a statement today. It said in June it sold 838 million pounds of commercial-secured loans to Lehman and had ``conditionally agreed'' to sell as much as 732 million pounds more in the second half. Northern Rock's shares have declined 39 percent this year, making them the worst-performer in the nine member FTSE 350 Banks Index. A global credit tightening has made it more expensive for banks to borrow and weighed on Northern Rock shares, analysts at Panmure Gordon & Co. have said. Northern Rock holds U.S. collateralized debt obligations of about 200 million pounds, or 0.2 percent of its 113 billion or total assets as of June 30, it also said today. Northern Rock's CDOs are all investment grade, it said. To contact the reporter on this story: Jon Menon in London Jmenon1@bloomberg.net http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=ajg50uhxi83M&refer=uk