Morgan Stanley has gained ground on Merrill Lynch in the corporate broking sector after replacing its Wall Street rival as joint broker to Rolls-Royce Group, the UK power systems company with a market value of nearly £7bn (€8.8bn).

Rolls-Royce, which is listed in the UK’s FTSE 100 index for blue-chip companies, revealed yesterday afternoon it has replaced Merrill Lynch with Morgan Stanley as joint broker following a review of its broking line-up initiated earlier this year by the company’s board.