Lewis bullish on Bear Stearns stake

Billionaire Joseph Lewis has raised his stake in The Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. to 8.01%, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That’s up from 6.97% in September, when the 70-year-old currency trader purchased more than eight million shares and became a major shareholder. At the time, he paid an average of $106 per share, fueling speculation as to whether Mr. Lewis was pitching a takeover of the bank. Subsequent published reports, however, indicated that this was not the case. Mr. Lewis’s additional stake averaged around $119 per share and was purchased between Oct. 19 and Dec. 5. The purchase of the 2.28 million shares totaled to $272 million. He and his funds Cambria Inc., Darcin Inc., Mandarin Inc., Nivon Inc. and Aquarian Investments Ltd. all own shares of the beleaguered firm. Mr. Lewis is the second-largest stake owner in the firm after Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss, an investment firm in Dallas, according to Bloomberg.