By Lananh Nguyen and Manya Saini
(Reuters) -Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick, who runs one of Wall Street’s biggest dealmakers, said his own firm was considering acquisitions and would set a high bar for purchases.
The Wall Street bank is evaluating opportunities that fit into its strategy, Pick told analysts who quizzed him on a post-earnings conference call on Wednesday. The bank would be more likely to buy smaller businesses that add its existing operations, such as wealth or investment management, he added.
“There are inorganic opportunities that come by along the transom and we are looking at them, of course, but the bar is super high,” Pick said. “We have a record of integration. That is a good one, but we have humility around what it takes to make integrations work.”
Pick’s predecessor James Gorman transformed Morgan Stanley through a series of major purchases that turned it into a wealth management powerhouse. Gorman bought money manager Eaton Vance, online broker E*Trade, and stock-plan manager Solium Capital.
Those deals gave Morgan Stanley plenty of room to grow its existing businesses, Pick said.
“We are not looking to make acquisitions just for the sake of it,” Pick said. “It may also be the case, though, and that inorganic opportunities come across the transom that give us incremental perspective or breadth.”
While there are many potential asset management acquisitions because the industry is fragmented, and performance is variable, Pick said, “we are being very careful about that… investment management roll-ups have had very mixed experience.”
(Reporting by Lananh Nguyen and Tatiana Bautzer in New York and Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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