British businessman loses $1bn in Bear Stearns collapse

A billionaire British businessman was today nursing huge losses from the collapse of the US investment bank Bear Stearns.

Joe Lewis, whose Tavistock Group firm owns Tottenham Hotspur as well as a host of other worldwide investments, said he has lost more than $1bn (€639m) after the cut-price buyout of the bank.

He was the second-largest shareholder in Bear Stearns with a near 10% stake reportedly built up last year.

Bear was forced into a government-backed bailout on Friday after investors lost their confidence in the firm and demanded their cash.

Two days later Wall Street rival JPMorgan Chase said it would buy out the bank in a deal worth two dollars a share. The Federal Reserve-backed deal valued the shares at less than 10% of their market value immediately before the crisis.

Bahamas-based Mr Lewis, who was worth £2.8bn (€3.5bn) last year according to the Sunday Times Rich List, told a business news TV channel that he was against the deal and has lost “more than” one billion US dollars because of the acquisition.

He is set to be joined by other angry shareholders and stock-owning employees who feel they could have received more than two dollars a share.

Mr Lewis, 71, started Tavistock Group 30 years ago after becoming a multi-millionaire when he sold his father’s catering business, Tavistock Catering.

It now has a portfolio of 170 companies in 15 countries, with Tottenham Hotspur’s chairman Daniel Levy listed as a member of the group’s senior management.

Mr Lewis reportedly lives in a £15m (€19.1m) house in the Bahamas with his wife Jane, counting James Bond actor Sir Sean Connery among his friends.

Among the businessman’s latest projects is an exclusive holiday and golfing enclave near the archipelago’s capital Nassau. It features a course designed by Ernie Els and Tiger Woods as well as a harbour for super-yachts.