Amid ongoing commodity battle and unstable economic environment, Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) has announced that Ed Moriarty, its Real Estate & Merchant Banking, has decided to leave the bank. A memo signed by company’s investment banking head Dan Simkowitz on Thursday unveiled that Moriarty, who joined Morgan Stanley in 2010, seeks to pursue other opportunities.
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Before joining Morgan Stanley, Moriarty was working with Merrill Lynch. Reporters got in touch with Morgan Stanley spokesperson to validate the authenticity of this memo, and soon received a confirmation about the content published in it.
He was the head of Morgan Stanley’s real estate and merchant banking arms, and also oversaw managed futures and alternative investments as part of his recent role. Previously, Moriarty worked as the Chief Operating Officer of company’s investment management business.
Another memo released lately revealed that Morgan Stanley was planning to restructure its investment management business completely. At present the total Asset Under Management (AUM) of this business is $400 billion; however, Morgan Stanley is aggressively trying to take it to all new heights in the coming months.
The recent fluctuation in global financial markets has affected company’s revenue propositions quite badly; therefore, it seeks to turn investment management business into a stable revenue generator division in the future. In 2015, the net revenue of this division was $2.3 billion, down 15% from what the company had reported in 2014.
This decision of Moriarty leaving the company has come as a shock for many shareholders as well as the board. Going forward, Michael Levy will take over the group’s Chief Operating Officer’s role. He has been working with Morgan Stanley for over 18 years. The board has also appointed Merrill Lynch as the new Head of Strategy business and CFO for Investment Management vertical.
The company will make multiple changes to reconstruct its investment management division in the coming months, details of which will be provided to shareholders from time to time.
