In the race to win investment banking business from Europe’s most lucrative clients, Morgan Stanley finds itself comfortably ahead of the competition going into the final stretch of 2014.

The US bank, which was this week named as an adviser to French telecoms group Altice on a proposed €7.4 billion purchase of PT Portugal, has earned around €131 million from the 10 biggest fee payers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, excluding financials, so far in 2014.