Mumbai: Major banks, including J P Morgan Chase, Bank of America and HSBC are likely to enter the race to acquire investment firm Bear Stearns Cos, although analysts said there would be real obstacles to a deal happening anytime soon.

Bear Stearns, the fifth largest Wall Street broker dealer by market value, which is scrambling to deal with losses of $1.7 billion at two of its hedge funds last month, has been cited as a potential take-over target.

And, while Bear Stearns'' leading edge in mortgage trading became a liability as the subprime home loan market suffered from big delinquencies, the brokerage''s top two executives were competing in a week-long national bridge tournament.

Bear Stearns''s co-president, Warren Spector, and the chief executive, Jimmy Cayne, however, were in touch with events at the company by phone.

Bear Sttearn''s two troubled hedge funds were victims of a collapse in US high-risk subprime mortgage market - and investors took fright, fearing Bear Stearns''s exposure could be more.

This prompted Standard & Poor''s to put Bear Stearns on a "negative" credit outlook. As its shares plummeted, the $15 billion bank convened a conference to assure investors that it remained solvent.

Analysts said while HSBC, Bank of America and Wachovia Corp might be interested in Bear Stearns'', J P Morgan Chase & Co might be looking at its global clearing business, which includes one of the top-ranked prime brokerage businesses in the US.

J P Morgan is much smaller in the prime brokerage business - financing and clearing trades for hedge funds - than many of its peers and acquisiton of Bear Stearns'' could boost its business, said an analyst.

Bank of America might also be interested in bolstering its investment banking operations, which are less robust than Citigroup''s or J P Morgan Chase''s, said an investor.

HSBC, however, is also wrestling with its own exposure to the US subprime market. The bank took a charge for bad debts of $6.35 billion in the first half of the year, up 63 per cent.

Bear Stearns, however, is unlikely to sell itself when its shares are at such a low, and there are few obvious buyers that would be a perfect cultural or business fit, analysts said.

While Bear''s subprime exposure may keep most suitors away until more clarity emerges about the full cost of Bear''s exposure to subprime mortgages, the Wall Street Journal said Bear Stearns has spoken to China-based investors about buying an equity stake or setting up a joint venture.