Tonight:
9°c
JPMorgan in new tilt
16.09.08
Jamie Dimon's JPMorgan Chase is expected to make a new bid for Washington Mutual, the biggest building society in the US, after its credit rating was cut to junk by Standard & Poor's.
The Wall Street bank, which bought Bear Stearns earlier this year, is said to be in “advanced talks” over buying the Seattle-based firm. Dimon is understood to be dealing with the matter personally, and to be in talks with WaMu chief Alan Fishman.
He reportedly approached WaMu earlier this year but was rebuffed.He is said to have offered a stock-swap buyout at $8 a share. The current share price is $2, giving the company a market capitalisation of $3.40 billion (£1.89 billion).
WaMu went instead with a $7 billion financing, selling a 13% stake to TPG Capital that valued WaMu at $8.75 a share.
The share price has since fallen heavily. S&P has put the building society on notice for possible future downgrades.
