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Morgan Stanley in talks with Wachovia
By Francesco Guerrera, Julie MacIntosh, Henny Sender and Saskia Scholtes in New York, and Jamil Anderlini in Beijing

Published: September 17 2008 21:01 | Last updated: September 18 2008 08:53

Morgan Stanley is in preliminary merger talks with Wachovia, the troubled regional lender, and exploring other potential deals in an effort to avoid becoming the next victim of the credit crunch.

The bank is also in close contact with a leading shareholder, China Investment Corporation, which owns a 9.9 per cent stake.

CIC was previously part of the Bank of America-led consortium that was considering a takeover bid for Lehman Brothers, alongside JC Flowers & Co. Christopher Flowers manages about $3.2bn of CIC’s money in a fund dedicated to taking stakes in financial institutions.

Gao Xiqing, president of CIC, is currently in the US accompanied by Wei Sun Christianson, the head of Morgan Stanley in China. Wang Qishan, China’s vice-premier who is in charge of the financial sector, is also in the US for bilateral trade talks.

It is believed to be highly unlikely that CIC would take over the US bank on its own.

Wachovia’s approach to Morgan Stanley came after the shares of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs plunged and the cost of insuring their debt rose sharply – a sign of waning investor confidence in Wall Street’s last two large investment banks.

Washington Mutual, the Seattle-based lender, is also looking to sell itself and has hired Goldman to run an auction, according to people close to the situation.

Goldman has approached a number of banks including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo but it is unclear whether rivals would bid for a company that has billions of bad assets.

The banks declined to comment, but JPMorgan is believed to be unwilling to bid for WaMu at this price, while San Francisco-based Wells generally focuses on small acquisitions. Citi is also believed to be wary of expanding its US retail operations during an economic slowdown.

The collapse of Lehman Brothers, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, has shifted investor attention to Morgan Stanley and Goldman amid concerns about the viability of stand-alone investment banks.

Morgan Stanley declined to comment, but people familiar with the situation said it had received a phone call from Charlotte-based Wachovia on Wednesday and its executives were considering the approach. They added that they were exploring other options including deals with other banks.

John Mack, Morgan Stanley’s chief executive, was said to be livid at the plunge in the share price. He contacted Hank Paulson, Teasury secretary, and Christopher Cox, Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, accusing short sellers of targeting Morgan Stanley and urging them to take action.

The SEC on Wednesday night said it would subpoena hedge fund managers who had traded in 19 financial institutions and require managers with holdings of $100m or more in certain securities to report their short positions every day.

In a memo, Mr Mack said: “There is no rational basis for the movement in our stock or credit default spreads...We’re in the midst of a market controlled by fear and rumours and short sellers are driving out stock down.”

Morgan Stanley shares fell 24 per cent to $21.75. Goldman fell 14 per cent to $114.50.

PS: Visto que as ações destes 2 bancos ontem desceram cerca de 20%, e visto que a provável fusão entre os dois poderá criar mais valias, será que hoje valerá a pena apostar nestes 2 bancos?

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