Morgan Stanley has made it three in a row with its appointment to lead the initial public offering of PricewaterhouseCooper's consulting business, in what could be one of the biggest IPOs of the year in the US.

The appointment of Morgan Stanley to lead PwC Consulting deal was confirmed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last year, Morgan Stanley was the sole bookrunner on the $2bn (€2.3bn) IPO of KPMG Consulting, and was joint bookrunner with Goldman Sachs on $1.7bn IPO of Accenture, two of PwC Consulting's main rivals. The deal is expected in late July or early August.