Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) will likely close 120 U.S. brokerage offices in order to remove overlapping that exists with Smith Barney locations, said President and COO Charles D. Johnston, according to a Bloomberg report.
Johnston made the announcement while speaking at a conference in New York, stating that U.S. locations will likely be cut down to 750 locations. Morgan Stanley has already shuttered roughly 90 offices since June of 2009. At the end of the first quarter, the brokerage had 870 offices located in the U.S.
“There’s overlap in just about every market in the country between Smith Barney and Morgan Stanley offices,” Johnston said, according to Bloomberg. “There’s no grand plan to dramatically shrink the footprint, but there’s an awful lot of no-brainer decisions when you do a deal like this.”
Morgan Stanley is the world’s largest brokerage, with over 18,140 financial advisers. Johnston said even with the closures, advisers will stay around 18,000.
Morgan Stanley issued first quarter results on Wednesday. The firm’s wealth management unit posted revenue of $3.1 billion, up from $1.3 billion a year earlier. The unit had net new assets of $5.8 billion in the period, holding a total of $1.6 trillion in client assets.
