Morgan Stanley Not Done With Acquisitions Post E*Trade, CFO Says

Morgan Stanley isn’t ruling out more deals after its biggest acquisition in a decade.

The bank will still look for smaller purchases that could build up its asset-management unit, Chief Financial Officer Jon Pruzan said at an investor conference Thursday. Wealth-management deals are likely “off the table for a while” as the firm seeks to complete its $13 billion purchase of E*Trade Financial Corp., he said.

Morgan Stanley would be looking to snap up companies that could add products or new regions for its investment management unit, and isn’t interested in acquisitions in the firm’s investment banking and trading division, Pruzan said.

The E*Trade deal has sparked discussion over whether it will kick off a long-predicted series of takeovers big enough to reshape the top of the U.S. financial industry. JPMorgan Chase & Co. said this week it will “aggressively” pursue mergers, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s David Solomon said Thursday his firm doesn’t need to find an acquisition just because its closest rival did.

Source: Bloomberg

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