Morgan Stanley spending $900M on largest buy since financial crisis

Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Morgan Stanley announced Monday that it will buy stock manager startup Solium Capital for $900 million, its largest deal since in the financial crisis.

Solium is a software platform that manages stocks for employees who receive them as part of their pay. The Calgary-based startup has about 3,000 clients who hire roughly a million workers, the companies said.

"Most people's money is coming through their workplace, so it's an obvious place for us to be," Morgan Stanley chief executive James Gorman said in a statement. "We didn't historically have a way to serve them. Now we do."

Morgan Stanley will pay 19 Canadian dollars a share for the firm. Officials said the deal should close by July.

Morgan Stanley first began a partnership with Solium in 2016 to administer equity compensation plans for corporate clients and employees.

"We view this acquisition as part of our broader, longer-term strategy, leveraging our digital capabilities in the workplace," Andy Saperstein, co-head of Morgan Stanley's Wealth Management, said.

Solium CEO Marcos Lopez will remain with the Canadian company

"The Solium board ... has unanimously determined that the arrangement is in the best interests of Solium and is fair to the holders of Solium Shares; and recommends that the holders of Solium Shares vote in favor of the arrangement," a statement on the firm's website said.

The deal must be approved by two-thirds of Solium shareholders.

The acquisition is Morgan Stanley's largest since the financial crisis at the end of the last decade and came a few days after BB&T announced a merger with SunTrust, the largest bank merger in years.