JPMorgan raises $10 bn

NEW YORK: JPMorgan Chase raised $10 billion in a stock sale to cover writedowns and losses after taking on deposits and branches of Washington Mutual, the biggest US savings and loan, for $1.9 billion.

JPMorgan, now the largest US bank by deposits, said the capital infu-sion would offset an estimated $8 billion of credit provisions, write-downs and losses in the third quarter.

The WaMu acquisition will force JPMorgan to set aside an additional $2 billion to cover bad loans on the failed thrift���s books. Chief executive officer Jamie Dimon said the deal would boost earnings per share by 50 cents in 2009. ���We want to just maintain the same strong balance sheet and capital ratios going forward as we have in the past,��� Dimon said. The shares were sold for $40.50, or 6.8% less than Thursday���s closing price of $43.46. JPMorgan sold 246.9 million shares.