Morgan Stanley left with stock after TDC deal
US INVESTMENT bank Morgan Stanley was last night reported to be left holding a sizeable percentage of the share offering in the Danish phone group TDC, after its private equity owners offloaded £626m worth of shares.
Morgan Stanley, the lead arranger for the share issue, increased the size of the offering by 50 per cent from what was originally planned, but ended up struggling to distribute the full amount, say sources close to the deal.
“The lack of any message that they were covered suggests the bank was left with a position,” said one source.
Morgan Stanley declined to comment on its final position. “Certain investors in NTC have sold approximately 128.7m shares in TDC in an accelerated bookbuilt offering,” the bank said yesterday.
The private equity groups sold about 15 per cent of TDC, cutting their stake to about 43.3 per cent.
Share sales, known as block trades, have surged recently, led by the $1.7bn stock offering in January from Repsol YPF SA, Spain’s biggest oil company. And Abertis, Spain’s biggest toll-road operator, sold part of its stake in Eutelsat in January.