Morgan Stanley (MS) is pursuing a buyer to sell its 34% stake that it holds in investment bank China International Capital Corporation (CICC). Morgan Stanley’s role in CICC has been reduced to that of a passive investor, prompting the case for disinvestment. Morgan Stanley received approval from Chinese regulators early last year to sell its stake in CICC. However, it then did not opt for the disinvestment as the bids were very low at that time. As the markets have now bounced back, the company now wants to revisit the deal. Potential suitors for the divestiture in China's largest investment bank could be private equity firms, namely Bain Capital and General Atlantic. The first rounds for the bids are expected on Tuesday. The divestiture is expected to realize over $1.2 billion for Morgan Stanley. On Oct. 21, Morgan Stanley reported third-quarter 2009 income of $498 ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 22, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Morgan Stanley (MS), Goldman Sachs (GS), St. Jude Medical, Inc. (STJ), Medtronic Inc. (MDT) and Boston Scientific Corporation (BSX).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Wednesday’s AnalystBlog:

Morgan Stanley Finally Profits

Morgan Stanley (MS) reported third-quarter 2009 income of $498 million this morning or 38 cents per share, compared with a loss of $159 million or $1.37 per share in the prior quarter and an income of $7.7 billion, or $7.38 per

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Morgan Stanley (MS) reported third-quarter 2009 income of $498 million this morning or 38 cents per share, compared with a loss of $159 million or $1.37 per share in the prior quarter and an income of $7.7 billion, or $7.38 per share a year ago. The results were much ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 30 cents per share. The results marked the first quarter of income in a year’s time. Results were aided by robust underwriting revenues in the investment banking operation resulting from higher levels of market activity, strong growth in fixed income sales and trading, commodities, prime brokerage and wealth management business, which offset losses in commercial real estate. Unlike the preceding qaurters, the results were in line with strong results from competitors like Goldman Sachs (GS) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), which has been grabbing market share after ...

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) on Wednesday said a team would now be dedicated for delivering its integrated prime brokerage and custody platform to clients. The team, Prime-Custody Solutions Group, will serve hedge funds and asset managers who look for a combination of prime brokerage capabilities and securities services.

Bear Stearns was one of the only prime brokers that had offered custody benefits to clients since 1997. The prime brokerage flourished after it was acquired by JPMorgan. Its Treasury & Securities Services division now manages $13.7 trillion in assets under custody and is the industry leader in prime brokerage and custody businesses.

The new development will further expand its product offering and deliver additional benefits to clients in a more efficient manner. As a result, it will be able to capture extended market share during the ongoing market challenges which have underscored the importance of partnering with a

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h1 style="text-align: center;"bNew Prime Brokerage Model/b/h1h2 style="text-align: center;"bspan class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);"New Prime Brokerage Model Emerging/span/b/h2br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wM_OZdOMR_Y/SUvGhHYSIaI/AAAAAAAACrA/bkbv9SI9Bmo/s1600-h/Prime-Brokerage-Trends.jpg"img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wM_OZdOMR_Y/SUvGhHYSIaI/AAAAAAAACrA/bkbv9SI9Bmo/s200/Prime-Brokerage-Trends.jpg" alt="New Prime Brokerage Model Emerging" title="New Prime Brokerage Model Emerging" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5281533260240920994" border="0" //aThe credit crisis and the subject of counter party risk is proving to be the final nail in the coffin for the hedge fund industry's single prime brokerage model. Funds of all sizes now demand multiple custodial relationships.br /br /The problem the high-cost-structure leading a href="http://primebrokerageguide.com"prime brokerage/a firms now face is that without the assurance of the captive single prime model the economics of servicing smaller funds no longer make sense. This reality combined with the primes' decreased risk tolerance means that we are seeing a mass exodus away from the top-tier primes. Anecdotal evidence suggests that these ...

Asian Hedge FundsAsian Fund Leverage & Prime Brokerage(http://hedgefundblogger.com) It seems that many Asian-based hedge funds have dodged a few bullets by not being tied as closely to Bear or Lehman... that combined with traditionally using less leverage than some other funds might have helped a few Asian hedge funds weather this storm. By a few I mean very few - recent data suggests that Asian funds are down more than their peers over the last few months. Below is an excerpt on how some Asian funds have dodged the prime brokerage woes of US and UK based groups:________________________ASIAN hedge funds are relatively shielded from the distress that their counterparts in developed markets are weathering, thanks to their use of 'far less' leverage, said UBS head of prime services (Asia Pacific) David Gray.'Our clients have been ...

Frozen Margin CallsMargins Calls on Frozen AssetsThe motivation to multi-prime increased more this week as hedge fund managers learn they may have to meet margin calls on securities which are frozen within Lehman Brothers. Here is a short excerpt from a news piece on this topic:_____________________________________________Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s hedge-fund clients may have to pay more collateral on $65 billion of assets frozen when the investment bank went bankrupt a month ago.Lehman's London-based prime brokerage has about 3,500 active clients including hedge funds that own about $45 billion in securities, Steven Pearson, the partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers responsible for unraveling Lehman's U.K. operations, said in an interview. They hold an additional $20 billion in short positions, or bets that prices will fall.While investors are largely unable to access their ...

Prime Brokerage SingaporeArticle on Prime Brokerage in Singapore

Here is a recent post from our associated PrimeBrokerageGuide.com site:

When visitors arrive at Singapore's Changi Airport, they get both an immigration card and an application form for opening a hedge fund.

This was one of the jokes making the rounds in 2007. The fact is that hedge funds in Singapore were growing fast since 2006. According to an article dated Feb 2007 from eFinancialCareers, "prime brokers are in hiring mode" - Barclays Capital, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and UBS all hired for their Singapore prime brokerage operations in 2006.

By Nov 2007, Singapore serves as prime broking regional headquarters for Credit Suisse

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Prime Brokerage Market ShareA Brief Overview of Industry Market ShareA good read titled "Battle of the Bulges" pointed out that competition for gaining prime brokerage market share is growing fiercer with more than $11 billion in expected hedge fund revenues in 2008, a 15% increase over 2006 (reported by TABB Group). The fight for market share is even more intense among the industry's top players.

For years the prime brokerage industry has been dominated by three firms—Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bear, which collectively owned about two-thirds of the market. As of year-end 2006, the Lipper HedgeWorld prime brokerage league table ranked Morgan Stanley first (with 23% of the market and $153 billion in assets), followed by Bear (21%, $136 billion), Goldman

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Prime Brokerage + AdministrationPrime Brokerage & Hedge Fund AdministrationMore prime brokerage firms are adding on administration services to help attract and retain clients. I wasn't sure how widespread of a trend this was but saw this mentioned within an article yesterday as noted below. I would be interested in discussing this further with hedge fund managers reading this article - if you have some insight - Richard@HedgeFundGroup.org.__________________In recent years, the custodian banks that have acquired hedge fund administrators have sought to adjust client lists in favor of larger and more profitable hedge fund and fund of funds groups interested in a broader array of services. At the same time, prime brokers have recognized that providing administration services ...