Morgan Stanley borrowing $8 bn in bank bond, after reporting higher revenue

Morgan Stanley is selling $8 billion worth of bonds, a day after reporting higher-than-expected revenue, as it joined rivals JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. in tapping the US investment-grade market this week.

The longest portion of the four-part offering, an 11-year security, will yield 1.25 percentage points above Treasuries after initial discussions of around 1.45 percentage points, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, added the person, who asked not to be identified as the details are private.
 

JPMorgan issued the same four types of notes that Morgan Stanley is marketing. Its sale raised $9 billion, kicking off an expected onslaught of new bonds from America’s biggest banks following their release of first-quarter results. 
 

Morgan Stanley’s trading and wealth units’ revenue cruised past analysts’ estimates, following blowout earnings from peer Goldman Sachs Group Inc. 

CreditSights analysts Peter Simon and Iris Shi wrote in a note that they would be buyers of the 11-year note if spreads were at least 1.25 percentage points, below which they would prefer the same bond Morgan Stanley issued in January.
 

“We see better valuation among some of the money center banks — particularly Citigroup and Bank of America — but Like Morgan Stanley relative to Goldman given similar spread levels recently,” the analysts said.