Ahmedabad: Leading Indian business school, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) issued a statement on Wednesday to calm speculation about the impact that the collapse of Lehman Bros. of the US will have over its placements.

"We, at IIM Ahmedabad, believe that events of the past few days have had their impact on Wall Street. We are currently not in a position to make a strong statement how these events are likely to impact us," the statement said.

"Furthermore, we have received many queries with specific reference to offers made by two firms in particular, namely Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch."

"We have a long-standing relationship with these firms, and they have featured among our prominent recruiters in the past. The combined number of PGP students hired by these two firms was 11 last year."

"The numbers for previous years are 28 (2007) and 20 (2006). We cannot comment on the status of alumni or interns with regard to these firms," the statement said.

"IIM Ahmedabad has a large and diverse pool of recruiters, and therefore, the status of a few firms is unlikely to impact IIM-A students from our placement process."

"Our student pool is also quite diverse and students looking for a long term career in finance continue to have a preference for the sector as they are unlikely to base a long-term career decision on a short-term view of the market." it said.

"Lastly, we would like to express our solidarity with two of our long standing recruiting partners, and wish them well in their hour of distress."

Students have been asked to contact Mihir Lal at 7mihirl@iimahd.ernet.in in case of any queries. IANS