Churn not to hurt Morgan Stanley here

The exit of Vikram Pandit, president of institutional securities at Morgan Stanley, and Guru Ramakrishnan, global head of trading technology, and the subsequent changes at the US investment banking giant's helm are not expected to impact its Indian operations.

There have been rumours of a rift between Morgan Stanley and its Indian partner, the Mumbai-based JM Financial, for some time now.

Nimesh Kampani, chairman of JM Morgan Stanley Pvt Ltd, the joint venture between the two, told Business Standard there would be no impact on the company's Indian operations.

Vikram Pandit was part of the 'Group of Eight' directors at the bank who started a campaign last week by publishing a letter in the Wall Street Journal calling for current chief Philip Purcell's head. Sources said the dissident directors were intent on stepping up their campaign this week.

Morgan Stanley operates in India through two

joint ventures with JM Financial in the investment banking and broking businesses. It also has a presence in asset management and business process outsourcing.

Morgan Stanley Asset Management is a wholly owned subsidiary of the global parent.

The investment bank recently entered the BPO space through Morgan Stanley Global Knowledge Centre, which is housed in Mindspace in the Mumbai suburb of Malad. The Knowledge Centre is expected to employ 1,000 people.

The two joint ventures with JM Financial, which were established in April, 1999, are JM Morgan Stanley Pvt Ltd, an investment bank, and JM Morgan Stanley Securities Pvt Ltd, a broking outfit.

JM Financial holds 51 per cent in the investment company and 49 per cent in the broking house. Kampani is the chairman of both the companies. The two companies have subsidiaries in the retail and fixed-income securities segments. Collectively, they employ close to 400 people.