TOKYO-In the seemingly endless recent trend of the US investment-bank bailouts, an overseas player has gotten involved. Locally based Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is investing $9 billion in New York City-based Morgan Stanley, giving it a 21% interest in the company.
The move comes after the federal government last week turned Morgan and fellow investment bank Goldman Sachs into holding companies. A potential sale of Morgan has brought into question the fate of its commercial real estate assets.
Mitsubishi and Morgan plan to partner on investment banking, retail banking and asset management. The former has nearly 900 bank branches and offices throughout Japan; 55 in other parts of Asia; 35 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 30 in the Americas. It also owns the 336-unit Union Bank of California.
In recent investor presentations, Mitsubishi management had said that it planned to grow in the US and Asia. Besides its headquarters in New York City, Morgan has significant offices in London, Hong Kong and Tokyo, employing some 50,000 people.
Morgan Stanley has about $96.3 billion of real estate assets under management around the globe. Earlier this year it and other firms invested €100 million in Central and Eastern European real estate developer Adama Holding Public, and Morgan also owns Fort Worth-based Crescent Real Estate Equities.
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