Zee Beam News

19.08.2005 13:36 MSK MosNews - U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley plans a return to Russian financial markets after securing a banking licence from the Russian Central Bank, the Vedomosti business daily reported on Friday, Aug 19. Local unit Morgan Stanley Bank should start operations in late October. The U.S. bank first entered the Russian market in 1994 but scaled back operations after the 1998 financial crash. Vedomosti quoted Morgan Stanley's Russia head Rair Simonyan as saying that any global investment bank which failed to enter Russia now risked getting left behind by the competition in the fast-growing Russian marketplace. Morgan Stanley has carved out a leading role in arranging initial public offerings for Russian companies, raising $1.6 billion for consumer services group AFK Sistema in London this year in the biggest IPO of a Russian company.