Morgan Stanley banker moonlights as an Uber driver to win top role in upcoming IPO

A top banker at Morgan Stanley has reportedly been moonlighting as an Uber driver outside of working hours, in a bid to win the deal to take the ride-hailing firm public in 2019.

Michael Grimes, a technology banker in the US for Morgan Stanley, has been running the job on the side for several years despite earning a multimillion-dollar salary, sources told the Wall Street Journal today.

Uber is set to go public next year in a listing which could value the firm as high as $120bn (£92bn), putting the tech giant's potential future market cap miles ahead of its current valuation of $76bn.

Read more: Uber's IPO could value it at double Tesla's market cap

Morgan Stanley and rival investment bank Goldman Sachs have been widely identified as the top two candidates vying to underwrite and advise upon Uber's IPO, however neither have confirmed their involvement. The role could earn the winner tens of millions of dollars in fees.

Uber is currently on an internal deadline to launch an offering in 2019, or transfer restrictions will lift on shares that could cause mass-trading of Uber stock.

An Uber spokesperson was unable to provide a comment on the reports, while Morgan Stanley did not respond to a request for comment.