Morgan Stanley has detailed its plans to spin-off its Discover card unit later this year. In SEC documents filed Friday, Morgan Stanley did not set a firm date for the spin-off or indicate how many shares its stockholders will receive from the spin-off. However, Morgan Stanley says it will not have a stake in the new Discover Financial Services company. David Nelms will serve as chairman and CEO of Discover. Philip Purcell, Morgan Stanley’s last CEO, first announced in early 2005 that he wanted to spin-off the Discover unit which the Board approved in April 2005. After Purcell was forced into retirement a few months later, his successor, John Mack, shelved the spin-off plan when he took over. Last week Morgan Stanley reported that its Discover unit posted pre-tax profits of $372 million for 1Q/07, a 22% decline over the year ago quarter. However, sequentially, profits nearly doubled from $199 million. Discover also reported that net revenues dipped 6% from a year ago to $1025 million. For complete details on Discover’s first quarter performance, visit CardData ([www.carddata.com][1]). (CF Library 4/5/05; 12/19/06; 3/21/07)
[1]: http://www.carddata.com
