Mint of 12 Septermber 2007 carried an article that mentioned that British financier, Joseph Lewis bought 7 percent of Bear Stearns at beaten down prices.
An interesting issue at the moment is -
What happened to his investment, as J P Morgan paid only 10 dollars per share?
See the related information and posts
March 16, 2008
UK tycoon Joe Lewis loses $800m on Wall Street
JOE LEWIS, the secretive British billionaire, has lost an estimated $800m in the collapse of the American investment bank Bear Stearns.
The 71-year-old currency trading tycoon, who runs his empire from the Bahamas, holds almost 10% of the bank's shares. Bear’s shares fell 40% on Friday to $27, after it secured a 28-day credit lifeline to stave off collapse.
Lewis began building a stake in Bear last September, when the shares were changing hands for more than $100.
The huge paper losses could force Lewis to sell out of some of his other positions, according to traders, in order to meet margin calls from his lending banks.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article3558485.ece
March 24, 2008
Joseph Lewis, a major Bear Stearns shareholder, has squeezed a higher offer out of JPMorgan Chase.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) agreed Monday to quintuple the value of its all-stock offer for Bear Stearns, to $10 a share. The revamped agreement, valued at $1.18 billion, comes just a week after JPMorgan agreed to buy the cash-strapped brokerage firm with backing from the Federal Reserve. The deal staved off a probable Bear Stearns bankruptcy that threatened to swamp the financial sector with a new wave of uncertainty.
Monday's revised deal seeks to placate Bear Stearns shareholders who were outraged that they initially stood to get only $2 apiece for shares that fetched as much as $159 each a year ago. A majority of Bear Stearns shareholders must approve the transaction - a fact that hasn't been lost on investors such as Lewis, the billionaire currency trader who is Bear's second-biggest shareholder. Lewis had called the deal "derisory" and, in a regulatory filing last week, vowed that he and other members of his group would "take whatever action that they deem necessary and appropriate to protect the value of their investment in the shares."
http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/24/news/companies/barr_bear_bidding.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008032413
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