|
|
Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva: Activist investor ValueAct Capital has bought a $1.1bn stake (38 million shares or 2% of outstanding shares) in investment bank Morgan Stanley. Despite the bank's falling shares, the hedge fund likes its shift to asset-light, fee based businesses.
Morgan Stanley’s shares are down 22% over the past year, compared with a 10% decline in the KBW Nasdaq bank index.
"We believe there is a disproportionate amount of time and energy spent overanalyzing Morgan Stanley’s trading and lending business and fretting about its Fed oversight," Jeffrey Ubben, ValueAct chairman and chief executive, wrote in a quarterly letter to investors that was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. "It feels like missing the forest for the trees."
The hedge fund likes Morgan Stanley’s shift to asset-light, fee-based businesses such as wealth and investment management, as well as investment bank advisory, all of which now account for 80% of profits.
Ubben told CNBC he likes the works of the bank's CEO James Gorman.
"While the narrative so far has been held captive to...................... To view our full article Click here
|
|
RSS
