Morgan Stanley has raised £178m (€280) from the sale of a 5.4% stake in Cable & Wireless, the UK telecoms company for Verizon Communications, the US-listed telecoms firm.

Morgan Stanley has placed C&W shares for a group of shareholders before, raising £71.7m in May 2000. However, it is the first time the bank has worked for Verizon. Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch are bookrunners for the IPO of Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon and Vodafone, which has been in the pipeline for the past year.