U.S.-based financial services firm Morgan Stanley, wants to exit its back-office operations in India, the Economic Times newspaper reported on Monday.

The bank is exploring all options, including a partial or entire sale of its back-office unit that does IT development and finance and accounting-related work for the U.S. firm, the Indian business daily said, citing three people familiar with the development.

Officials from Morgan Stanley in India could not be immediately contacted for a comment.

The potential value of the transaction for its entire back-office operations could be $150 million-$250 million with about $50 million alone for the knowledge process work, the report said citing an unnamed investment banker.

The knowledge process work involves equity research, complex financial modelling and portfolio analysis.

The value of the transaction would also depend on the amount of business the firm is willing to commit to the potential buyer, the report said.

It quoted an unidentified person as saying that the committed business could be around $500 million for five years. The back office operations employ about 2,000 people, it said.

Likely buyers included several large Indian IT firms, some of which already do development work for Morgan Stanley, the report said.

In October 2008, Tata Consultancy Services, India's top software exporter acquired Citigroup's back-office unit in India for about $505 million in cash. Later that year, No. 3 outsourcer, Wipro Ltd bought Citi Technology Services Ltd, another Citigroup unit, for $127 million

(Reporting by Janaki Krishnan; Editing by Valerie Lee)

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