Morgan Stanley is reaching out to various asset management companies to assess whether they are interested to buy or forge alliance with its Van Kampen mutual-fund business – reported Bloomberg.
Morgan Stanley intends to overhaul its investment banking operations as it had posted operating losses for six consecutive quarters. Eventhough bets on real-estate and merchant banking funds are responsible for this dismal performance, the bank wants to use the opportunity to shake up individual investor unit, reported the Daily Mail.
Brad Hintz, a former treasurer at Morgan Stanley who is now an analyst at New York-based investment firm Sanford Bernstein & Co, commented: A joint venture makes sense because asset management is fundamentally a very good business. I don’t see why Morgan Stanley would want to sell an asset-management business if you think the economy’s coming back and assets are coming back.
Robert Lee, an analyst at New York-based KBW, commented: Morgan Stanley bought Van Kampen for $720 million in 1996. It’s worth about $1.1 billion now. Morgan Stanley would benefit from selling its asset- management business to a larger, better run, independent asset manager and taking a minority stake in that firm, reported the Daily Mail.
