JPMorgan buys 11.5 million Bear Stearns shares

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co said it bought 11.5 million shares of Bear Stearns Cos Inc on the open market, in an effort to gain enough voting power to essentially guarantee its acquisition of Bear Stearns.

JPMorgan Chase said it plans to buy more shares of Bear Stearns, potentially until it has as much as 49.5 percent of the shares.

With the purchase disclosed Thursday, JPMorgan Chase owns about 12.98 million Bear Stearns shares, or about 8.9 percent based on the current share count.

Bear Stearns plans to issue another 95 million new shares to JPMorgan Chase. After those new shares, JPMorgan Chase should own about 44.9 percent of Bear Stearns.

JPMorgan paid $140.7 million for the 11.5 million Bear Stearns shares on March 24, or an average of about $12.24 a share. That purchase took place the same day that JPMorgan said it was increasing its bid for Bear Stearns to about $10 a share in stock from its original bid on March 16 of $2 per share.

Bear Stearns shares traded above $10 on March 24, as some investors speculated an even higher offer could emerge.

On Thursday, shares of Bear Stearns closed 1.3 percent lower at $10.72 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Dan Wilchins; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)