Investment manager Alliance Bernstein is teaming up with investment bank Societe Generale to create a major new equities research platform.
The new venture will provide clients including institutional investors and corporate and financial institution issuers with a global suite of services across cash equities and research, combined with Societe Generale’s integrated equity capital markets, equity derivatives and prime services platforms.
The platform will offer investment insights into the American, European and Asia Pacific equity markets, in addition to new liquidity access and global trading technology.
Societe Generale will take a 51% interest in the joint venture, with an option to reach 100% ownership after five years. The business will be run as a long-term partnership under the Bernstein name, headquartered in London. Upon closing, Robert van Brugge, CEO of Bernstein Research, is to become CEO of the new entity for an initial term of five years, while Stephane Loiseau, the head of Societe Generale’s cash equities business, will become deputy CEO.
“In Societe Generale, we have a strategic partner who is committed to strengthening and growing our world-class cash equities and research business,” said Seth Bernstein, AllianceBernstein’s president and CEO.
“This partnership with one of the most recognised firms in research and cash equities, combined with our global leadership in equity derivatives, would create an indisputable leader across the equity business for the benefit of our issuer and investor clients,” added Slawomir Krupa, head of global banking and investor solutions at Societe Generale.
“This partnership gives us the opportunity to participate in the high added value segments of the global equities business,” said van Brugge.
“And, importantly, it would also allow us to preserve and expand our firms’ unique strengths, expertise, and cultures,” added Loiseau.
The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2023. As AllianceBernstein will own less than 50%, the firm plans to remove Bernstein Research from its own financial statements following the deal. The entity will be 100% consolidated by Societe Generale from an accounting and regulatory perspective, and a call option will be granted to the bank to purchase AllianceBernstein’s 49% share at a later date.