On the surface, it looked as if snapping up three hedge funds in quick succession -- with a fourth this week, Brookville Capital – meant that Morgan Stanley is working furiously to catch up with its bigger peers in the HF industry. But Stuart Bohart, the man chosen to head the firm’s alternative investments arm, says otherwise. Despite the recent HF acquisitions or parts thereof, Bohart told MarketWatch, “We’re not trying to build a hedge fund business.” Rather, he says, “we’re trying to build a modern investment-management firm,” so it can attract pension funds, endowments and the like with “a whole package of solutions while providing access to the best managers.” In fact, he views the latest hedge fund buying spree as a way of “plugging holes and expanding our culture” at a firm that already boasts a $6 billion fund of hedge funds business, as well as millions in single-manager HFs. While MS may lay off acquiring more hedge funds in the near future, it’s shopping around to buy or launch in other alternative-investment areas as well – a buyout fund in 2007 that could raise up to $8 billion, and a possible real estate fund of funds to go along with its other real estate offerings, including real estate investment trusts. MarketWatch says Bohart is excited about the prospect of metamorphosing Morgan Stanley’s traditional approach with one that includes hedge-fund like strategies. This includes possible “120/20 funds,”  which combines borrowing 120% of a portfolio’s value with to boost shares of stocks they like, while allowing them to short up to 20% of the portfolio’s value for stocks they don’t.