Morgan Stanley 2000 Annual Report Download - page 8

Another advantage of incumbency results from the importance of advice, or client-
tailored excellence. As the sheer flow of information increases, the need to filter,
analyze and decide how to act on the information also increases. Even as the cost of
information decreases, investors and businesses are still willing to pay for the advice
they need in order to use the information profitably. At our firm, we are committed
to providing our clients with the very best online technology, but we also are con-
tinuing to build resources such as our team of nearly 14,000 financial advisors. Sound
advice, whether based on the knowledge of financial advisors, investment bankers,
research analysts or traders, is a value-added resource that cannot be built overnight.
The most powerful and far-reaching trend in financial services in our time is global-
ization, which is now being accelerated by the Internet. The spread of more open
political systems and market economies throughout the world, and the closer links
among markets, has created greater opportunities for financial services companies—
with clear advantages for those with an established global presence. We believe that
there is significant value for our clients in the global network we have worked hard
to create. In 2000, more than 40 percent of our institutional securities revenues came
from outside the United States. Major transactions included some of the largest
IPOs ever in China (Sinopec, China Unicom); the offering for Alcatel Optronics—the
first-ever tracking stock in Europe; and the acquisition of EDC (Venezuela) by AES
(United States)—the first successful unsolicited acquisition in Latin America. We also
continued to build on our initiative to establish a global retail securities and asset
management capability with the recently proposed acquisition of Quilter Holdings
Limited, a leading U.K.-based private client investment management business. In
addition, our entry into the credit card market in the United Kingdom is well under
way, and we plan to enter additional international markets this year.
BUILDING A NEW COMPANY
We clearly are benefiting from certain advantages of incumbency in a changing
world and continue to take steps that will place us in an even stronger position to
meet the challenges that lie ahead.
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WORLDWIDE M&A
ANNOUNCED TRANSACTIONS*
(market share in percent)
*Thomson Financial Securities Data
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WORLDWIDE INITIAL
PUBLIC OFFERINGS*
(market share in percent)
*Thomson Financial Securities Data
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NUMBER OF TOP-RATED
ANALYSTS WORLDWIDE