Morgan Stanley bankers crush estimates in record wuarter for M&A
BNN Bloomberg
Morgan Stanley’s investment bankers scored their best quarter ever, boosted by a torrid pace of dealmaking.
Morgan Stanley’s investment bankers scored their best quarter ever, boosted by a torrid pace of dealmaking.
The division hauled in US$2.85 billion in the third quarter, a 67 per cent jump that topped analysts’ estimates and helped drive firmwide profitability higher. Equity-trading revenue surged 24 per cent to US$2.9 billion, the firm said in a statement Thursday.
“We are firing on all cylinders again,” Chief Financial Officer Sharon Yeshaya said in an interview.
Wall Street’s top firms have been capitalizing on a golden era for dealmaking and trading since the start of the pandemic. Now, as a trading slowdown takes hold, investment bankers have been picking up the slack, with booming capital markets and merger-advisory businesses generating record fees.
Bank of America Corp. said earlier Thursday that its third-quarter results got a boost from higher fees at the dealmaking unit. JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Wednesday its mergers-and-acquisitions business posted its best quarter ever.
Shares of Morgan Stanley, which advanced 44 per cent this year through Wednesday, climbed 2.9 per cent to US$101.39 at 8:23 a.m. in early New York trading. The New York-based firm’s gains throughout the pandemic have been outpacing rivals with consumer operations, which suffered during the crisis.
