Morgan Stanley seeks up to US$1 billion in GE HealthCare shares

MORGAN Stanley is seeking as much as US$1.1 billion for a block of GE HealthCare Technologies shares as part of a debt-for-equity swap, people familiar with the situation said.

The lender is marketing 13 million shares for US$81.50 to US$83.00 per share, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. There are multiple times more orders than there are available shares, the people said.

Representatives for Morgan Stanley and GE HealthCare didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The shares are part of a General Electric debt-for-equity exchange programme where Morgan Stanley, as a lender, will receive GE HealthCare stock in exchange, according to a press release on Thursday (Feb 15). GE spun off GE HealthCare in January 2023.

GE HealthCare shares closed at US$85.63 each on Thursday, and have climbed nearly 11 per cent in the year to date.

Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup, Evercore ISI, Goldman Sachs Group and JPMorgan Chase are joint bookrunners of the deal, the press release showed. The seller has granted an option for the underwriters to purchase additional shares of GE HealthCare stock at the offering price, less the underwriting discount, for 30 days. BLOOMBERG