Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., trying to shore up its balance sheet, has settled on a structure that will allow it to offload billions of dollars in real-estate loans from its books.

The Wall Street firm run by Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld is still hammering out the final details and it isn't clear when a plan will be unveiled. One sticking point: finding financing in this cash-strapped environment for a spinoff or sale of these assets.

In addition to offloading the real-estate assets, Lehman is trying to sell its Neuberger Berman investment-management unit. Ideally, Lehman management would like to announce both transactions at the same time so it can assure investors that it has a bold plan to navigate its way out of the current credit crisis.

For the real-estate assets, Lehman has set up a so-called good bank/bad bank structure. Such a deal is likely to involve a spinoff of the holdings to shareholders as well as an investment by outside investors.

Details of the plan weren't clear. One option may be a "sponsored spin." That would involve bundling some of the troubled assets into a new entity, which would then be spun off to Lehman holders on a tax-free basis. Also, a new investor or group of investors could take a big minority stake in the new company, thus "sponsoring" it.

Lehman, according to one person close to the deal, is expected to provide at least some financing. Lehman was sitting on $40 billion in commercial real estate at the end of the last fiscal quarter and another $24.9 billion in residential assets.

If Lehman goes with this plan, it will differ from the one Merrill Lynch & Co. opted for in August when it sold more than $30 billion in toxic mortgage-related assets at just 22 cents a dollar. That deal was done with just one buyer: private-equity firm Lone Star Funds but Merrill provided financing.

A Lehman announcement will no doubt be a relief to investors who have watched the stock bounce up and down in recent weeks as details of the firm's negotiations for a cash fix have leaked out. Lehman's stock closed at $16.09, up 22 cents, as of 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange composite trading on Friday. Lehman stock has fallen 75% this year, and its market value has slipped to $11 billion.

Lehman had a second-period loss of $2.8 billion, its first loss since going public in 1994, and analysts predict it will lose more than $2 billion this quarter.

Write to Susanne Craig at susanne.craig@wsj.com, Matthew Karnitschnig at matthew.karnitschnig@wsj.com and Michael Corkery at michael.corkery@wsj.com

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