Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s bankruptcy estate is selling apartment-building owner Archstone Enterprise LP in a $6.5 billion cash and stock deal.

Lehman said Monday that it is selling Archstone to Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities Inc. Archstone is Lehman Brothers' single largest asset.

Lehman owned about half Archstone until earlier this year when it bought full ownership for $1.58 billion.

It will receive nearly $2.69 billion in cash for Monday's deal plus 34.5 million shares of Equity Residential's stock and 14.9 million shares of AvalonBay's stock that are worth about $3.8 billion combined.

Lehman, which collapsed in 2008 in the biggest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history, described the deal as very positive for its creditors.