Bids for Morgan Stanley's Van Kampen fund arm may be getting a little more complex than usual. Published reports suggest that the wirehouse is discussing a transaction that could give it a stake in Invesco Ltd. in exchange for the Van Kampen business. The report, which first appeared in Bloomberg very early on Wednesday morning is based on a source who requested to remain anonymous because negotiations are confidential.

Invesco has been touted as the leading bidder for the up-for-sale mutual-fund business. The article also wrote that Morgan Stanley had approached Nuveen Investments and Aberdeen Asset Management to gauge their interest in the Van Kampen deal.

Meanwhile, KBW stock analyst Robert Lee wrote in a new research report that Van Kampen could fetch as much as $1.1 billion in a sale. Morgan Stanley paid $720 million when it purchased the unit in 1996. Van Kampen has $86 billion in AUM, making Lee's suggested price just 1.27 percent of AUM. Its asset base peaked at $127 billion last June.

Lee wrote that Morgan Stanley "would benefit from selling its asset- management business to a larger, better run, independent asset manager and taking a minority stake in that firm." 

Edited by: John Alzate


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