Morgan Stanley To Sell Global Oil Merchanting Unit To Rosneft

(RTTNews) - Morgan Stanley (MS) said Friday that it has agreed to sell the Global Oil Merchanting unit of its Commodities division to a 100% subsidiary of Rosneft Oil Co.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The sale includes a dispersed international network of oil terminal storage agreements; inventory; physical oil purchase, sale and supply agreements; equity investments; and freight shipping contracts.

About 100 front-office executives in the U.S., UK and Singapore, or one-third of Morgan Stanley's total commodities front-office personnel, will move to Rosneft Group as part of the deal. Morgan Stanley's oil merchanting business engages in the global storage, trading and transportation of oil and refined products. The deal does not include Morgan Stanley's client-facilitation oil trading business; its ownership stake in U.S.-based oil storage, marketing and transportation company TransMontaigne; or any of its commodities operations outside of the oil sector.

The Firm is currently exploring strategic options for its stake in TransMontaigne.

Morgan Stanley's non-controlling 49% stake in Heidmar Holdings LLC, which manages pools comprising a fleet of about 100 independently owned commercial tankers, is among the oil-related investments being transferred to Rosneft.

The deal, which is targeted to close in the second half of 2014, is not expected to have a material impact on Morgan Stanley's financial results.