Morgan Stanley will give you a piece of a hot startup – for $ 20 million

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America’s largest manager of household wealth promises its clients stakes in hot-heated private startups with return potential that makes gains in publicly traded stocks look like gains at a night out bingo at the church.
But there’s a catch: they want $ 20 million in assets up front to get into the game.
With stock indices quoted at historic highs and bond yields not yielding much, there is a dearth of bargains in the markets these days. Thus, some investors have become eager to quickly get into private start-ups with the potential to become the next Tesla.
Starting next year, Morgan Stanley will let people do just that (well, people with $ 20 million in assets), offering them an a la carte buffet of selected stocks from top start-ups, according to senior executives who spoke to The Wall Street Journal. Here is the world they will have access to:
- Tech start-ups take an average of 12 years to go public these days (triple the time it took in 1999), giving Morgan Stanley a bunch of private companies it could offer ordinary traders.
- According to McKinsey and Co, the value of private stocks has grown twice as fast as the value of listed companies since 2002.
On your marks, get set, sell (emphasis on set): There are a handful of small private equity exchanges, like EquityZen and Forge Global, but many start-ups do not participate because trading can interfere with the valuation they get when raising funds. Morgan Stanley plans to get around this by allowing companies to set the price of shares that they will then sell to their very wealthy clients.
Past performances: This isn’t the first time Morgan Stanley has tried to give its wealthiest clients a head start on private stocks, but all previous efforts have not gone well. A blind investment pool for bank customers offered Uber stocks for $ 48 in 2016 – they’re currently worth $ 45. To hell with soaring prices.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.