Morgan Stanley agrees to acquire transfer agent Vinyl Equity

Morgan Stanley has signed an agreement to acquire Vinyl Equity, a digital-first SEC-registered transfer agent and shareholder recordkeeping platform. Financial terms were not disclosed. Closing is expected in Q1 2027, subject to customary conditions.

Vinyl was founded in 2022. Its platform replaces manual transfer agency work with digital workflows and real-time reporting, with a focus on companies going through an IPO. Investors included Jump Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Innovation Partners, Spark Capital, Index Ventures and Infinity Ventures.

The deal adds transfer agency to Morgan Stanley at Work, which serves more than 3,400 corporate clients and 6.7 million participants. Companies get one platform for cap table management, equity administration, share transfer and wealth management, across private and public markets. The bank also expects Vinyl to provide infrastructure for future tokenization initiatives.