(Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley’s incoming chief executive officer, Ted Pick, said investment banking will lead the next business cycle, and that hiring for that business will help the firm compete with rivals.

“In equities and fixed income and across investment banking, we’re focused on being No. 1,” Pick said in a Bloomberg Television interview Thursday. “We want to have the right people in place. We’ve been investing for the next cycle. That next cycle is going to be investment banking led.”

Pick, 54, found out Wednesday afternoon that he had been chosen to succeed James Gorman, 65, as the firm’s CEO. Currently co-president, Pick will transition to his new role in January and join the board. Pick revamped Morgan Stanley’s equities-trading business in the wake of the financial crisis and later repaired its struggling fixed-income unit.

Gorman announced in May he would be stepping down, touching off a race among top executives to succeed him. In a rare setup, the firm said the two men who missed out on the top job will stay on. Co-President Andy Saperstein will gain oversight of the firm’s asset-management business in addition to his role leading wealth management, and Dan Simkowitz will replace Pick as co-president leading the investment-banking and trading division.

Gorman said during the Bloomberg Television interview that neither executive would be subject to lockup periods, but both will remain with the bank.

“These are phenomenal opportunities,” Gorman said. “They’re high-quality people.”

Gorman’s time as CEO was marked by a major strategic overhaul of the firm accelerated by some of the largest deals struck by a large US bank in the years after the 2008 financial crisis. The company acquired E*Trade Financial Corp., Eaton Vance Corp. and Smith Barney.

“We like what we have,” Pick said. “We always talk about acquisition candidates, but that’s off in the future.”

--With assistance from Sonali Basak.

(Updates with comments about acquisitions in last two paragraphs.)

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