Morgan Stanley prices Invesco stake

Morgan Stanley, the sixth-largest U.S. bank by assets, divested a stake in Invesco Ltd. for $664 million five months after acquiring the shares in its sale of a retail asset-management business. An affiliate sold the holding for $21.48 a share to Morgan Stanley’s underwriting arm, which may sell the stock “from time to time” in transactions at negotiated or market prices, the New York-based bank said in a statement today. The underwriter then offered the shares to the public at $21.75, said Mark Lake, a spokesman for the firm. Morgan Stanley acquired the shares in its sale of an asset- management business that included the Van Kampen funds unit. Morgan Stanley last month agreed to sell a controlling stake in FrontPoint Partners LLC and said it may sell other holdings in hedge funds to free up capital before new minimum capital requirements go into effect. Invesco fell 5.2 percent, the biggest drop in three months, to $21.99 at 10 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares rose 28 percent from June 1, when the Invesco deal closed with Morgan Stanley, through yesterday. Morgan Stanley is likely to book a gain on the sale in the fourth quarter, as it carried the equity stake at a value of $568 million, according to a regulatory filing. The firm had previously recorded a cumulative gain of $673 million related to the sale, the filing said.