BofA, Morgan Stanley said to sell Uber shares to clients

Bank of America and Morgan Stanley are selling shares in Uber Technologies Inc. to their high-net worth clients, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Shares in the car-booking technology company are being priced at about $49 a share, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the plansare private. Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch is restricting its sales to clients with a net worth of more than $100 million and is asking for a minimum purchase of $1 million, the person said. Morgan Stanley is requiring themto buy at least $250,000 in Uber shares, the person said.

Banks offer shares in many of the hottest private companies to investors who want to buy in before an initial public offering. Securities firms sometimes use these share sales to cement ties with nonpublic companies inthe hopes of winning a prized underwriter spot in an eventual IPO.

Charlotte-based Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and Uber declined to comment. CNBC first reported that Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley are selling shares to clients. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., an early Uber investor, has previously sold convertible debtin the company to some of its private clients.

Bloomberg reported a financing round in December that valued Uber at $62.5 billion, which is more than about 80 percent of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Uber has raised more than $10 billion since it was founded in 2009.

This story was originally published January 13, 2016 at 3:46 PM with the headline "BofA, Morgan Stanley said to sell Uber shares to clients."