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(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4109772&forum_id=2#37058298)

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Morgan Stanley Banker Is Also an Uber Driver

Some bankers go the extra mile to land a deal. Michael Grimes drove many.

By Maureen Farrell and Liz Hoffman

Oct. 18, 2018 5:30 a.m. ET

Many Uber drivers are in it for a few extra bucks. Michael Grimes has a bigger prize in mind.

Mr. Grimes, Morgan Stanley’s top technology banker, has moonlighted for years as a driver for the ride-hailing service, according to people familiar with the matter. That side hustle—hardly necessary, given his multimillion-dollar Wall Street salary—may help Morgan Stanley win a role on the most hotly anticipated stock-market debut in years.

Valuing the nine-year-old company at as much as $120 billion, an Uber IPO would reward investment bankers with tens of millions of dollars in fees and equally valuable bragging rights.

Morgan Stanley MS 0.85% and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS 0.89% recently gave presentations to Uber outlining an IPO that could launch in early 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Some people briefed on the matter say Morgan Stanley is the odds-on favorite to land the coveted role of top underwriter, which carries higher fees and prestige.

Some bankers have been known to go to extreme lengths to stand out from the competition. Most start with a mastery of the numbers and fluency with entrepreneurs’ vision, but some like Mr. Grimes have gone further--he rented an apartment close to one company and studied his daughter’s internet habits to get familiar with another.

Investment banks compete fiercely in Silicon Valley, where Morgan Stanley has been the No. 1 underwriter for U.S.-listed tech IPOs in four of the past five years, according to Dealogic. It is a boom-and-bust business, surging when the market is hot—like it is now—and moribund when investor enthusiasm cools.

But picking winners and landing the choicest assignments is never easy. While Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick was CEO, the company told banks that working for competing ride-share services would lock them out of dealings with Uber, according to people familiar with the matter.

The stakes are now higher than ever. After a slow stretch in which many flush startups preferred to stay private, the IPO market is booming.

Global tech companies have sold $123 billion in shares so far this year, versus $84 billion at the same point in 2017, according to Dealogic. Stock-underwriting fees rose a combined 40% at Goldman, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co. through the first nine months of this year.

Dropbox Inc., Eventbrite Inc. and Spotify Technology AG SPOT -2.33% are among many high-profile companies to go public. The biggest launches are still to come: Uber, Lyft Inc., Pinterest and Airbnb Inc. are all eyeing IPOs in 2019 or 2020.

For Wall Street banks eager to cash in on the offerings, the preparations started years ago.

Goldman backed Uber early. It invested in the company in 2011 at a roughly $200 million valuation, gaining a stake that could turn a billion-dollar profit in an eventual IPO, people familiar with the matter have said. Goldman in 2015 sold to clients of its private bank bonds that convert into Uber shares at a discount to the company’s eventual IPO price. Gary Cohn, the bank’s longtime No. 2 executive, was a frequent visitor to Uber’s San Francisco headquarters and became close to Mr. Kalanick, who said of Goldman in 2015, “we’re big fans of those guys.”

At a conservative estimate of $1 billion, the profits from its Uber investment would amount to 10% of Goldman’s annual pretax profits and could put the bank in an uncomfortable position if it is seen as steering a deal that would result in a personal windfall.

Morgan Stanley has wooed Uber for years. When the bank authorized Uber rides for its employees traveling on business in 2014, it marked the occasion with a press release. In 2016, it arranged a $1.5 billion loan for Uber, the company's first major borrowing and one of the first times a money-losing tech startup had tapped the debt markets.

The same year, Morgan Stanley raised hundreds of millions from its wealthy clients to invest in Uber, despite the fact that the company was unwilling to provide key financial information. The bank currently is the lead arranger of a $2 billion Uber bond sale.

As the IPO looms, Mr. Grimes took center stage. A fast-talking California native with a degree in computer science, he is known to put on a show for clients.

Nearly a year ahead of Snap Inc.’s IPO, he rented an apartment blocks from the Snapchat parent’s Venice, Calif., office. When Morgan Stanley pitched music-streaming service Pandora Media Inc. on going public, Mr. Grimes had his bankers wear T-shirts from their favorite rock concerts.

He is known for being obsessive, even controlling, on the hunt for a deal. Before presenting to Pandora’s board, Mr. Grimes spent weeks studying his daughter’s usage of the website and chose the color of the paper his team’s pitch was printed on, a person present at the proposal said.

When seeking a lead role for Morgan Stanley on Facebook Inc.’s 2012 IPO, he insisted on being the “single driver” of the deal, arguing that having a sole bank in charge simplifies the process.

—Anupreeta Das and Greg Bensinger contributed to this article.

Write to Maureen Farrell at maureen.farrell@wsj.com and Liz Hoffman at liz.hoffman@wsj.com

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4109772&forum_id=2#37067301)