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Morgan Stanley

6/19/2013, 6:15 AM ET

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Monday, June 17, 3:36 PM Moody's (MCO), S&P (MHP), and Morgan Stanley (MS) earlier this year paid the state of Florida $9.5M as part of a confidential settlement over a crisis-era MBS deal gone bad, reports the WSJ. Florida was one of 14 plaintiffs in the suit, and the total settlement came to about $225M. The case is of interest because the ratings agencies have been deluged with these lawsuits but have rarely settled. The defendants deny any wrongdoing. Comment! [Financials]
Monday, June 17, 1:52 AM KKR (KKR), Blackstone (BX), Carlyle (CG) and prospective strategic buyers such as U.K.-based Inmarsat (IMASF.PK) and Australia's NewSat (NWTLD.OB) are among the suitors to have reportedly placed first-round bids for the satellite operations of Singapore Telecoms' Australian unit, Optus, which SingTel values at over A$2B ($1.9B). SingTel advisers Credit Suisse (CS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) will provide a loan of A$1.7B that the acquirers can use to finance the deal. Comment! [Financials, Tech, Consumer, M&A]
Wednesday, June 12, 3:05 PM Morgan Stanley's (MS -1.8%) wealth management unit can achieve a pretax margin of 20-22% by 2015, says CEO James Gorman, speaking at the bank's conference (presentation slides). Profits could go even higher if interest rates rise, he adds. The unit produced a 17% margin in each of the last 2 quarters, ahead of a 15% target. Gorman promised 20% by the end of 2011, a prediction he today calls foolish. 3 Comments [Financials]
Tuesday, June 11, 9:30 AM GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has fired the head of its Chinese R&D unit, Jingwu Zhang, following an investigation into allegations of data fabrication in a 2010 scientific paper on multiple sclerosis (MS) that was published in Nature Medicine. Another scientist has resigned, while GSK has put another three on "administrative leave" pending a final review. SA author Derek Lowe has lots of questions, including "how many more things have been faked as well?" (PR) 2 Comments [Healthcare]
Saturday, June 8, 9:05 AM Boring stocks can bring exciting returns, Mark Hulbert discovers, as his research reveals stocks exhibiting the least historical volatility on average comfortably outperform the most "exciting" (i.e., volatile) issues. One believer in the boring-is-beautiful school, Guggenheim Partners' Nardin Baker, likes these stocks: SO. D, KMB, CL, COST. Too volatile are AAPL, GS, C, MS, HPQ. MET. 6 Comments [Quick Ideas]
Friday, June 7, 7:05 AM Macquarie initiates coverage on a few big-cap financials, labeling Morgan Stanley (MS) and Citigroup (C) Outperform with $30 and $62 price targets, respectively, and Bank of America (BAC) Underperform with $12 price target. Comment! [Financials]
Wednesday, June 5, 11:08 AM Worried about the "steady shift" toward alternative securities - such as vehicles buying into various hedge funds - Finra plans to publish a formal warning to investors. The move comes as Morgan Stanley (MS) wealth management chief Greg Fleming says the days of cost cuts are over and he's now plotting an aggressive focus on the top line. "We feel good about the different ways we can enhance business going forward." Finra: "Not so fast." 1 Comment [Financials]
Friday, May 31, 3:21 PM Large-cap banks are poised for multiple expansion, says Sterne Agee, as discussions with managements along with data points from recent investor presentations suggest business in Q2 is doing better than expectations. The team is recommending a basket of C, JPM, MS, and GS. In a similar vein, they like a basket of "discounted regionals" - PNC, MTB, RF, USB, and STI. Comment! [Financials]
Friday, May 31, 9:02 AM Morgan Stanley (MS) is upgraded to Buy at Deutsche Bank, analyst Matt O'Connor expecting earnings to accelerate from the plan to purchase the rest of Smith Barney from Citigroup (which should get regulatory approval "any day"). Morgan has estimated a $400M lift to earnings from the remaining stake, a number O'Connor expects to increase over time should markets remain positive. Comment! [Financials]
Thursday, May 30, 2:49 PM Morgan Stanley (MS +3.5%) not only advised Shuanghui on its bid for Smithfield Foods, but it's also providing about $3B in financing for the $4.7B purchase, reports the WSJ. Naturally, Morgan won't hold the paper, instead planning to sell the debt to other banks, including Chinese lenders. Shuanghui is owned by a group of P-E firms, as well as shops like Goldman Sachs and Temasek Holdings. Comment! [Financials, M&A]
Thursday, May 30, 7:57 AM Morgan Stanley (MS) scales back its ambition to be a top fixed-income shop, telling investors its aim is to pull in just $1.5B-$2.5B in quarterly revenue, far less than the pre-crisis peak of $3.4B. The bank - famously targeting a 10% ROE - wants to instead focus on the more profitable businesses helping to achieve that. Shares +0.8% premarket. Comment! [Financials]
Wednesday, May 29, 3:17 AM Morgan Stanley's (MS) Msref real-estate department reportedly intends to raise a new $1-3B global property fund and hopes that China Investment Corp., which owns 6.4% in the bank, will become an anchor investor. However, Morgan Stanley might have problems attracting other potential backers, such as Calpers and the New York State Common Retirement Fund, which have been burned by placing their money with Msref. Comment! [Financials]
Friday, May 24, 8:54 AM Morgan Stanley (MS) shakes up its Asia equities team, naming Jerome Leleu and Mille Cheng as co-heads of the business to replace Justin Jaik who's moving to a new role. Cheng is rejoining Morgan from Barclays - where she headed the China equity business since 2011. Comment! [Financials]
Wednesday, May 22, 12:18 PM Morgan Stanley (MS) joins a big group raising money to invest in global infrastructure, reports Bloomberg, with plans to soon begin raising $4B for a fund. The new fund from MS Infrastructure Partners would be the same size as a 2008 fund, though the team there doesn't bear a ton of resemblance to what it looked like back then. Comment! [Financials]
Monday, May 20, 6:54 AM Morgan Stanley (MS) finally unloads its Indian wealth-management unit, inking a deal to sell the business to Standard Chartered (SCBFF.PK) for an undisclosed amount. Morgan started the unit amid an economic and stock market boom in India in 2008, but things haven't panned out as hoped. Comment! [Financials]
Thursday, May 16, 3:55 PM Described as a win for Wall Street's biggest swaps dealers - JPM, BAC, C, MS, and GS - the CFTC approves new swap trading rules 3 years after the passage of Dodd-Frank. The rules mandate new trading platforms making bids and offers public, but require traders send request for bids to just two firms before execution rather than the five some had called for. Smaller exchanges aren't sweating it, instead happy they now have a defined system to operate under. 1 Comment [Financials]

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