Morgan Stanley and Lazard Ltd are advising on the future of troubled financial group Fortis as one of the latest victims of the credit crisis provides income for investment banks.
Belgium and Luxembourg struggled to find a buyer for the remains of the group this weekend, after Fortis's Dutch units were sold to the Netherlands government on Friday, following a partial nationalisation only days earlier.
Morgan Stanley said it was advising Fortis in the process, and there were no indications that the Belgian nor the Luxembourg government had sought financial advise from others.
"We are the sole advisors to Fortis," a spokesman for Morgan Stanley said this weekend. Lazard said it was advising the Netherlands government, which bought the bank's Dutch operations on Friday after the earlier part nationalisation by the three Benelux countries had not been deemed enough to keep the unit afloat.
Both Morgan Stanley and Lazard declined to give further detail about the talks taking place this weekend, which could result in Fortis's remaining Belgian and Luxembourg units to be sold off or nationalised further.
With Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley is one of only two large investment banks that have survived independently, though the two have subjected themselves to closer regulatory scrutiny in return for access to central bank funding.
But Lazard - a boutique bank like Greenhill & Co Inc and Evercore Partners Inc - may well benefit from the global crunch, as it focuses on providing merger advice and has abstained from risky trading.
Belgium's Prime Minister Yves Leterme said on Sunday Belgium and Luxembourg were in touch with several private groups over Fortis and that he would send a "clear signal" about the situations to markets before open on Monday.
Luxembourg's economy minister has said that BNP Paribas was a possible buyer of the Luxembourg unit of Fortis, and also said a solution had to be found this weekend.
Forced asset sales by banks hurt by the credit crisis are providing rising income for investment banks, and financial groups were the sector most involved in M&A activity in the third quarter, Thomson Reuters data show.
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